The Ether Conflict
by aGuestfromGreece45
Summary: One day...the Apocalypse came. Earthquakes shook the Earth, changing the planet's face. Law and order, ethics and morals just vanished, their meaning lost in the ensuing chaos and madness. But something darker lurks in the shadows, threatening to change our way of life forever. It needs to be stopped...though it might be too late for that. [AU story, fantasy elements included]
1. Chapter 1: Welcome to Hell

**A/N: This is the first chapter of the** **rewriting project i announced in the latest chapter. I plan on rewriting till chapter 4 and revising the rest of them. For any new readers, keep that in mind when you are reading chapters 2-4. For anyone that follows the story since the beginning, hope you like the new and improved chapter. Welcome to Hell boys and girls.**

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 **The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 1: Welcome to Hell**

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The day was unusually clear. Birds chirped happily on the lonely trees, while the Sun shone brightly upon the hills. Two men strolled through the tall grass and short trees, stomping over them as they enjoyed the cool breeze that blew gently through the woodland. They stopped at the edge of a cliff, admiring the tranquil view. Below, they noticed a small outpost, still standing.

"This is boring," one of the men complained, as he sat down, sighing. "It's now what? The seventh time we passed this same spot? And it's still noon!"

The complaining man wore a red T-shirt and a pair of jeans, torn by the elements. He held an AK-47 assault rifle, its barrel pointing to the ground. He rubbed his tanned skin, irritated.

"Stop complaining," said the other man, who had his own AK-47 rifle slung on his back. Unlike the red-shirted man, he wore a blue sleeveless shirt, a pair of gray pants, and a green bandanna.

"It's boring!" the red-shirted man repeated, groaning.

"So what?" the blue-shirted one retorted. "Being on patrol duty is one of the best things that can happen to you. Just walk for four hours, two times a day, and you get free food, water, and a good place to sleep. What more could you ask?"

"It's still boring!" the red-shirted man groaned again. "Personally, I want to go out with the rest of the guys and shoot some people!"

"You mean, shoot innocent bystanders and civilians alike, and then abduct their women and children?" the blue-shirted man asked, raising an eyebrow. His green bandanna tilted a little, and the man fixed it back.

"If you put it that way," the red-shirted man continued. "You make it sound like we are some sort of bad guys."

"Because we are!" the blue-shirted man answered, facepalming with his right hand. "Good guys don't go and steal food and water from other people, and neither will they massacre a whole community just because they weren't in the mood that day. We're bandits, remember?"

"OK," said the red-shirted man, sweating a little. "Let's change the topic to something more palatable. Have you heard where the boys went?"

"They left with all the vehicles," the blue-shirted man replied.

"It is strange that they left all of a sudden."

"I heard that they went on a 'hunt' of some sort, again," the blue-shirted man said, fixing his green bandanna again.

"Seriously?" the red-shirted man blurted out, slamming his rifle to the ground. The soft soil shook at the impact.

"Yup," said the blue-shirted man, sitting down next to his comrade.

"Great," the red-shirted man retorted, spitting. "I thought they would go for supplies or something more useful. Did that boy break the merchandise already? That sick human of a boss sure passes his time nicely.

Both continued in their talk, their voices full of disgust and complaint at their base. Unbeknownst to them, two slim silhouettes crouched behind two giant bushes at a distance of about seven meters from the two bandits. They slowly crawled through the bushes, and the sunlight shone upon them more clearly. Two girls in identical, black military uniforms, covered with thin but flexible bulletproof vests, approached the talking bandits.

One of the silhouettes was a girl of medium height, with short, light brown hair and a pair of light brown eyes. She held a military knife with her right gloved hand, watching the two men talk, listening carefully for any information. A holster was strapped on her right thigh, which carried a 4th-generation Glock 34. The other silhouette appeared, in the form of a girl who was slightly shorter than the other. She had short but very curly, dark brown hair, with a pair of dark brown eyes. She also held a military knife with her own right gloved hand, her own holster on the right thigh, carrying a Ruger SR9c. The two girls squinted at the men, spying on them.

"He's the one giving us food and money," the blue-shirted man said. "So, there's not much we can do. Just stay away from his office and you should be fine."

"Hmmph!" the red-shirted man replied. "So, when are the boys coming back?"

"In about an hour," answered the blue-shirted man. "Unless they actually were going out to search for supplies."

"That's quick," the red-shirted man exclaimed, whistling.

Having heard enough, the two girls slowly but quietly approached the men, lifting their blades, ready to strike.

"Say," the red-shirted man began. "Why do we have to avoid his-mm!"

He could not finish his sentence, as a gloved hand covered his mouth. His own partner suffered the same fate, by a different girl. The girls silenced them with their left hands, and cut the men's throats with their knives. Their throats slit, blood spewed out of the ruptured jugular veins. Both men fell to the ground with a _thud_.

The girls then turned the bodies, and searched them for anything useful. Finding a few items of worth, such as some cartridges and snack packages, the girls proceeded to throw the bodies off the cliff. The bodies rolled around and around, as they slammed unto the cliffside. The girls watched them fall, until they disappeared beneath the forest canopy below.

"Let's go," the light brown-haired girl said.

"Yes," smirked the other girl. "Miss Nishizumi."

Stopping at the edge of the cliffside, Miho looked down to see how high they were, before motioning to Yukari that they were going to climb down from here.

The girls started descending the steep cliffside, making sure they didn't lose their footing and plunge down into their deaths.

"Couldn't we have backtracked the way we came Miss Nishizumi?" Yukari asked, stopping her descent and looking at Miho, who was on her left.

"It would take too much time. We have an hour at the most, before their main force comes back," Miho answered, looking downwards to see if there was any solid footing she could use to place her feet. "Our orders are to assassinate the highest ranked individual and uncover information about their main base. I'd rather avoid any unnecessary risks." Finding a rock that seemed solid enough to support her weight, she carefully stepped on it, applying her weight as smoothly as possible, to make sure the rock wouldn't dislodge itself from the side of the cliff.

"If you say so Miss Nishizumi, but don't you think climbing down without safety equipment is a risk too?" Yukari retorted, also carefully stepping in a stone big enough to have a strong footing.

"It's better than getting shot at least," she answered back.

Saying nothing more, the two girls spent about ten minutes climbing down the steep cliffside carefully. Reaching the ground, both of them unholstered their own sidearms, slowly scanning their surroundings for any threats. Finding none, they started trudging through the forest, stepping on dead leaves and small branches that littered the forest floor, the sound of them getting crushed echoing between the trees.

Reaching the edge of the forest, both girls take cover behind a tree each, their pistols raised in case they need to shoot. Peering over the side of the tree trunk she is using as cover, Miho spots a two-man patrol besides a wooden watchtower. The two men chat quietly, while a man on top of the watchtower scans the surrounding area from his elevated position with a weapon, presumably a sniper rifle. Behind the men, at a distance of about 50 meters, lay a structure made of wood and pieces of metal. It seemed like its roof would cave in at any moment and even the wood seemed to be moldy, a sign that the elements had not treated it nice during its lifespan. It didn't had any windows or an entrance from the side the girls were.

Pressing the earpiece on her right ear, Miho clears her throat before speaking. "Saori, can you hear me?" she says in a low voice to make sure the enemy won't hear her speaking.

"I can hear you Miporin, are you both okay?"a voice speaks through the earpiece.

"Yes, we are fine. Me and Yukari are at the edge of the forest, about 70 meters away from the target building, are you in position?" she asks, still looking around to see if there are any other patrols in the vicinity.

"Yes, but are you sure this will work?" Saori asks in great concern.

"We heard from some bandits that most of their forces are out on a 'hunt', whatever that means, and won't be back for about an hour. We have a distinct advantage over them right now," Miho answers back. Taking another look around, she spots another watchtower at the opposite side of the outpost. "Saori, can you see a watchtower from where you are?"

"We can actually see two watchtowers from our position," Saori reports back.

"Load an HE shell and tell Hana to fire at the closest watchtower on my signal. After that, tell her to fire at the other watchtower, then storm the outpost. Kill any enemy personnel you see. Use only the coaxial machine gun when you enter the outpost, we don't want to damage the target building," she orders and she can hear Saori groaning in response, since she has to act like a loader for the time being, before informing the rest of the crew of what they have to do.

"Okay, we are awaiting your signal," Saori says.

Glancing at Yukari, Miho signals her with her left hand to aim at one of the two men that are standing near the base of the watchtower. Raising her Glock 34, she aims at the man that is closest to the watchtower, resting her weapon's sights on his head. Inhaling and exhaling slowly, she steadies her aim. Now, the birds have stopped chirping, like a premonition of what is about to happen.

"Fire," she orders and a booming sound is heard coming from the other side of the outpost, before the watchtower on the other side vanishes in a cloud of smoke and fire, splinters raining everywhere. Miho pulls the trigger of her pistol and out comes a 9mm bullet, propelling itself through the air and towards the man. Upon contact, the bullet lodges itself inside the man's head and forces it to jerk backwards, blood spurting out of the entry wound. Even before the bandit hits the ground, his friend is already falling down, a bullet hole between his eyes.

Another thundering boom is heard and both Miho and Yukari see a shell crashing at the left side of the watchtower's body, the explosion throwing splinters and pieces of wood everywhere. The top of the watchtower starts banking on the left, the wooden supports and pillars on the right side creaking more and more intensely from the increasing pressure. Reaching their limit, both the supports and the pillars snap, causing the top to come crashing down on the ground, the impact throwing soil and dust everywhere. Taking advantage of this, both Miho and Yukari run through the dust cloud that lingers in the air, Yukari stopping briefly at the remains of the watchtower to put a bullet in the head of the enemy sniper, before continuing her advance to the target building, her Ruger SR9c raised and ready to fire. Reaching the wall of the building, she, along with Miho, immediately crouch and scan their immediate surroundings, checking for any enemies.

The rattling of a machine gun can be heard, accompanied by the screams of people and the sound of bodies hitting the ground. Sticking to the wall, both Miho and Yukari peek over the side of the wall, before standing up and making their way towards the front of the building.

Reaching the front of the building, the ground was littered with dead bandits, their bodies full of holes. Blood was oozing out of them, pooling around the bodies and painting the ground dark red. In front of the building stands motionless the Panzer IV ausf H, its turret and cannon looking directly on the wooden, front door.

As the girls approach the tank, the radio operator's hatch opens and out comes a girl that was the same height as Yukari, had long ginger colored hair and light brown eyes. She ,too, wore the same black uniform and bulletproof vest. Getting out of her seat, she grabs her SCAR-L assault rifle that sits on its stock to her immediate right, in the space between her seat and the tank's wall, and jumps off the tank and quickly runs to Miho and Yukari.

"Are you both OK?" she quickly asks.

"We are fine Saori, don't worry," Miho quickly says, before turning to face Yukari. "Yukari, change places with Saori and tell Hana to fire the machine gun at the wooden door on my signal."

Complyng with her orders, Yukari quickly runs back at the tank, climbing its hull and entering it from the loader's hatch, which was located at the right side of the turret. Miho and Saori take position besides the wooden door and Miho hits it lightly once, to indicate at Hana that she is clear to fire.

The coaxial machine gun sparks to life, spewing bullets that punch holes through the door, with splinters and blood flying everywhere. Stopping its fire, the machine gun sizzles, as gunpowder smoke slowly escapes the barrel. Saori retrieves a flashbang that hangs from her utility belt and after pulling the pin, she throws it through the many holes the door has developed and after hearing a loud _puff_ , accompanied by a bright and intense light, she shoulder bashes through the door, breaking it in individual pieces.

Splinters shower her as she enters a narrow corridor that is no longer than 10 meters, its walls riddled with bullet holes and bloodied bodies lying on the floor. Quickly scanning the corridor, she notices a man lying on the ground, holding his head and groaning in pain. Saori snaps her aim on his head and presses the trigger once, and the man's movements seize. Keeping her rifle raised, she proceeds with Miho at the end of the corridor, where a metal door stands. Kicking it a few times, Saori manages to break the flimsy lock and with one last kick, the door is flung open. Both girls enter the room with their guns raised, scanning it for any hostiles.

Seeing none, Miho holsters her pistol, while Saori just lowers her assault rifle, keeping it in her hands in case there is an emergency. The room that the girls are in looks like a very small office, with a desk in the middle of it and a cabinet at one of the corners of the room. A very luxurious wheeled chair sits behind the desk, contrasting with the rest of the office. The room has no visible windows, its only light source being the fluorescent bulbs that hang from the ceiling.

"Saori, check the desk for any documents that might reveal the enemy's location. I'll check the cabinet," Miho says quickly, already in front of it and opening the drawers. Saori does the same, opening the drawers of the desk and quickly glancing through the stacks of papers they contain. Most of them were for the number of supplies they needed, how much manpower they had and other unimportant stuff.

"Miporin, there is nothing here," Saori says, walking slowly towards Miho. "Did you find anything?"

Shaking her head, Miho puts the documents she had on her hand back at the cabinet. Scanning slowly the room, a thoughtful expression forms on her face.

"Is something wrong?" Saori asks, seeing the thoughtful expression her commander had.

"I remember the building being bigger, yet this room seems far too small for its outer dimensions. I wonder..." Miho trails off, being already lost to her own thoughts. Not knowing what to do, Saori just gazes at Miho, trying to guess what she is thinking.

While looking down at the floor, Miho notices that the wooden planks on the floor next to the cabinet are damaged, scraped if we want to be exact. "Saori, come and help me move the cabinet," she quickly says, positioning herself on the right side of it.

Saori quickly grabs the cabinet from its left side and pushes it with Miho towards their left, alongside the wall. The wall behind the cabinet appears to have a door that is a bit smaller than the cabinet, but big enough for a human to be able to pass. Before Miho can retrieve a small LED flashlight she keeps in one of her vest's pockets though, a loud thud is heard coming from behind her. Her training kicking in, she immediately unholsters her Glock 34 and aims it at the direction of the sound, only to find the wheeled chair lying down on the floor, a trapdoor open in front of it and a figure running to the entrance of the building.

Saori runs out of the room immediately in pursuit of the fleeing enemy. Miho presses her earpiece to speak. "Yukari, we have a fleeing enemy, he should come out of the entrance about now, stop him at all costs!"

 _"Yes, Miss Nishizumi!"_ Yukari says, before exiting the vehicle along with Hana to catch the fleeing figure.

In the meantime, Miho, after holstering her pistol, finally fishes out of one of the pockets the small flashlight and opens the door that was hidden behind the cabinet to enter a dark, concealed room. Upon entering, a very disgusting stench hits her nostrils, the smell being so intense that her eyes tear up, putting her gloved hand over her nose and mouth reflexively.

"What is this horrible smell?" she thinks aloud, her gait producing a sticky, almost sickening sound. Turning the flashlight on to be able to see in darkness that envelopes the room, her eyes widen in horror, her stomach convulsing from the pure disgust she feels. Running out of the room, she falls to her knees, before vomiting everything her stomach was holding. Coughing a bit, she wipes her mouth with the back of her right gloved hand, slowly regaining enough strength to stand up.

What no one can see though, since she is alone in the room, is the color of her eyes, that changes from brown to red for a fraction of a second.

 _"Miss Nishizumi, we caught the fleeing enemy, we have him in front of the tank,"_ she hears a voice speak from her earpiece.

"I'll be there in a moment Yukari," she responds.

Taking a deep breath, she starts walking slowly out of the room and into the corridor, not making any effort to avoid the tiny puddles of blood that have formed, the soles of her boots getting red and leaving footprints on the rest of the floor.

Exiting the building, she finds five people standing in front of the tank. A man that is not older than 25 years old, has black hair and eyes and wears a uniform that closely resembles the one the Japanese soldiers wore in World War 2. In front of him, at a distance of 5 meters, stands an elegant girl with long black hair and black eyes. Just like the rest, she too wears a black uniform and a bulletproof vest, a holster that contains a Glock 34 strapped on her right thigh. On her left stands Yukari, who has her arms crossed, looking at the man for any suspicious movement, while on her right stands Saori, who still holds her SCAR-L. Seeing the man, Miho subconsciously quickens her pace, anger feeling her slowly.

Hearing footsteps, Saori turns to look at who is coming. "Miporin, is everything alright?" she asks, noticing the serious and severe look on Miho's face.

Miho says nothing and goes straight for the man, everyone's gazes following her. Stopping in front of him, she clenches her right fist and punches him in the face with such force that his nose breaks, blood starting to seep out of it at an alarming rate. The man falls to the ground, clasping his broken nose and grunting from the intense pain he feels.

"Miporin, why did you do this?!" Saori yells, distressed at her friend's actions. Both Hana and Yukari look with concerned looks at Miho, who still doesn't respond back to her friend.

Miho unholsters her pistol and walks in front of the man, who upon seeing her gun, tries to crawl away from her.

Miho lodges her left foot on the man's chest, effectively pinning him down on the ground. The man tries to shake off Miho's leg, but to his utmost disdain he finds that however much strength he puts, he can't even budge her leg a little.

Aiming her pistol at the man's head, she presses her foot on his chest, as to have his full attention.

"I have some questions to ask you. Answer them all and I'll let you live," Miho says, her voice full of anger. Even her eyes are filled with killing intent.

"I have nothing to tell to you, little girl," The man responds with a grin, blood still flowing from his nose, albeit at smaller quantities.

Miho though is in no mood for games, and snapping her aim a bit at the right, she fires, the bullet passing millimeters away from the man's face, hitting the ground and bouncing off of it. The man's grin instantly vanishes, his eyes glued at the smoking barrel of the Glock 34.

"First question. Where is your main base of operations?"

The man says nothing, so Miho starts applying more pressure on the man's chest, causing his breathing to become fast and sallow.

"Fine, fine, I'll tell you, I'll tell you!" the man says with a raspy voice. Miho reduces the pressure she is applying, and after taking a few deep breaths, the man speaks.

"It's...it's in the west. If you give me a map, I can pinpoint the location exactly," the man says quickly, still eyeing the pistol Miho holds. Yukari quickly goes into the tank and returns with a map of Japan and a marker. Thankfully the map was of the new Japan, showing how the land was after the Apocalypse. Handing the map and marker, the man quickly marks the place where their main base is, before handing them back at Yukari.

"Second question. What is a 'hunt'?" she asks with a demanding tone.

"It's when we attack communities to abduct some of their members and sell them to slave traders," he answers with a low voice. Upon hearing that, all of the girls develop a serious expression on their faces, with Saori visibly tightening her grip on her weapon.

Suddenly, the driver's hatch opens and out comes a short girl with long, thick black hair with bangs and a white headband, and dark hazel eyes. She too wears a black uniform with a bulletproof vest. "Miho, one of the sensors we placed on our way here has been triggered, probably their main force. They will be here in about ten minutes," The girl says in a sleepy voice.

"Thanks Mako," Miho responds, before turning her head to look at the man's eyes again.

"Third question. What is the purpose of the room that is hidden behind the office room?" she asks the man with a threatening tone.

"I-I don't know what you are talking about," The man says, clearly feigning ignorance.

"The room where you tortured two girls, that's what I'm talking about!", Miho almost yells, causing everyone else to look at her with wide eyes, shocked from what they just have heard.

"What are you talking about Miporin?", Saori blurts out, still shocked.

"The room we found behind the cabinet, Saori, I checked it out. They were two mutilated bodies inside. If you don't believe me, you can go check it out yourselves," Miho says, griping her pistol tighter.

Yukari instantly bolts into the building, her curiosity getting the better of her, Hana following behind her, wanting to see if her friend isn't just overreacting to something else.

Entering the building, both of them carefully step over the dead bodies and puddles of blood. Upon entering the room, Yukari spots an opened door that leads to a very dark room. Entering the dark room, both girls reflexively cover their noses and mouths, trying to stomach the smell of rotten flesh that permeates the air.

"What is this horrible smell?" Hana says, coughing a bit from the intensity of the smell.

Yukari doesn't respond, as she tries to find a light switch in the wall, her steps producing a sticky and sickening sound. Feeling something that resembles a switch, she flicks it and a fan can be heard starting, presumably the ventilation. The air starts to get lighter and lighter, until it is clear enough to be breathable, the smell having subsided. Finding another switch, she flicks it too. Light fills the dark room, as the fluorescent bulbs that are in the ceiling start flickering.

Turning to face the center of the room, she feels her whole body being petrified by horror, her eyes widening in pure shock from what they are seeing.

In the middle of the room sit tied in two chairs the mutilated bodies of two young girls, with the floor around them full of dried blood, which extends to the edges of the room. Both bodies have bruises all over them, some of their fingers seem to be snapped or missing from their hands and in some areas there is no flesh at all. One of the bodies has its abdomen cut open, the internal organs spilling out and on the ground. The other body has third degree burns all over it, especially on the head.

Both Yukari and Hana run out of the room, with Yukari immediately collapsing on the office's floor, vomiting from what she has seen. Hana fairs a bit better, using the desk to support herself, fighting the urge to vomit from the pure disgust she feels. Taking a few deep breaths, she manages to calm down a bit, regaining her composure, before helping Yukari to stand up, who seems unable to move from the sheer shock she feels.

"Wh-Who c-could do something l-like that?!" Yukari says in a quivering voice, her breathing being erratic.

"You need to calm down Yukari. Try to take some deep breaths," Hana says quickly, supporting her friend who still seems to be unable to stand on her own two feet.

They both exit the room and start heading back to the tank, the corridor feeling longer than the two girls remember.

"How can I calm down Hana? These girls were kids, they couldn't be older than 12! And the things they had been done on them!" Yukari says in a whisper, her eyes starting to tear up.

Exiting the building, Hana takes Yukari towards the tank and helps her to enter it through the radio operator's hatch, before joining the rest at its front. Mako dives in back to the tank, trying to calm down Yukari, who is silently crying.

"Hana, wh-what did the room had?" Saori slowly asks, already getting a feeling that she won't like the answer.

"It was as Miho said. There were two mutilated bodies, but they...belonged to kids," she hesitantly says, her mind still trying to deny what she has seen.

"What?" Saori widens her eyes both in shock and horror,her face getting paler by the second, as her grip in her weapon tightens as much as it is possible,her hands shaking.

"I'll ask you one more time. Were you the one that did these things to the girls?!" Miho says, intense killing intent mixed in her voice.

The man says nothing, looking away from Miho.

"Miho, the second sensor got triggered, we need to get out of here now," Mako says with her usual, sleepy expression, though the slight quivering of her voice suggests that she too has been affected from what she has heard.

Miho sighs lightly, and holstering her pistol, she goes towards the tank, accompanied by Hana. The man stands up and tries to run, only for Saori to hit him on his back with the butt of her rifle so hard, the man collapses to the ground, face first, his broken nose starting to bleed yet again.

"Where do you think you are going?" Saori seethes angrily through clenched teeth, her voice clearly indicating her next action. Aiming at the man's back, her rifle roars, as a whole magazine of bullets is expended. The weapon clicks empty and Saori lowers it, gunpowder smoke escaping from its barrel. The man lies motionless on the ground, full of holes, blood slowly seeping out from both his back and abdomen.

"Saori!" Miho yells from the commander's hatch and Saori quickly climbs the hull of the tank and enters it through the radio operator's hatch.

"Everyone seal your hatches. Saori, establish a transmission with the HQ and pass them what we have heard. Mako, get us out of here. Yukari, load HE shells," Miho orders.

"Yes!" everyone responds and the tank's engine roars in life, the characteristic sound of treads moving echoing through the now silent outpost. Following a dirt road that goes through the forest, next in which the outpost had been constructed, Miho spots a big wooden structure hidden between the trees.

"Stop," she orders and the tank comes to a halt.

"Hana, aim at 10 o'clock, at the big wooden structure hidden between the trees."

The turret slowly rotates and sets it sights at the target.

"Fire," Miho says and after a second a thunderclap is heard and the gun breach is kicked back, the shell casing falling onto the tank's floor. The shell exits from the gun barrel, propelling itself through the air, nearly hitting some of the trees. Landing on the structure, it passes cleanly through the wooden wall and explodes, resulting in the structure to get obliterated by an even bigger explosion that throws pieces of flaming wood all over the place and even sets some nearby trees on fire.

"This must have been their supply depot," Hana says.

"Mm, they must have had it hidden in the woods in case they were to be attacked," Miho answers back.

"They clearly didn't do a good job," Mako says, resuming driving onto the dirt road.

The tank keeps following the dirt road, the end of the forest being visible now.

"Saori, did you contact the HQ?", Miho asks, looking at the edge of the forest for any suspicious movements.

"Yes, we are to go and meet the Antelope team on Grid Point H45. We will receive further orders when we meet them," Saori says before adding, "Who are exactly these guys?"

"I only know that they joined Blackout a month ago, but their records are all outstanding, completing a lot of difficult assignments."

"I have also heard that they have a pretty weird tank. I have never seen it, but rumors have it that it is a salvaged Panther from Kuromorimine with a custom built turret," Yukari says in a cheerful voice, having calmed enough to be her usual self.

"Does their squad have a nickname like ours?" Hana asks curiously.

"Oh please, don't remind me of that thing again," Saori groans, not wanting to remember the nickname they have been given by most of the personnel in Blackout.

"At least it made you popular with the boys," Mako says to Saori.

"Yeah, but I wanted something cute. 'Black Wolves' is the exact opposite of that!" Saori says with a grumpy face.

Everyone giggles at Saori's behavior. The tank exits the forest and onto a plain, where at a distance of about 100 meters is a blockade made of civilian pickup trucks, all of them sporting a .50 Cal machine gun on their cargo bed and bandits taking cover behind them. Upon seeing the tank, all of the machine guns start firing on it, the bullets harmlessly bouncing all over its front.

Both the coaxial and the bow machine gun of the tank start firing, the bullets easily penetrating the cars and killing the bandits hiding behind them. The cannon is fired and one of the trucks goes up in flames, its body getting twisted and the shrapnel from the explosion killing or severely wounding anyone standing near it. The Panzer IV starts moving forwards, easily reaching 30 km/h and crashing into one of the trucks, it flattens it with ease, the sound of grinding steel resounding in the air. Leaving the blockade behind them and continuing following the road, Miho spots pickup trucks following them from both her left and right.

"Hana, aim and fire at the pickup trucks at the left, me and Saori will deal with the ones on the right," Miho says to Hana, while grabbing her M16A4 assault rifle.

Opening the commander's hatch, she aims at the driver of one the pickup trucks, and starts laying suppressive fire, hitting him multiple times on his side and head. The truck swerves to the right and crashes at the side of another truck, causing it to lose control and ultimately go barreling for some 15 meters. Saori peeks out of her hatch and aims her gun at another truck on the right side, only to press the trigger for a click to be heard. Wondering what's wrong, she quickly remembers that she didn't reload her weapon, so she ducks back inside the tank and closes the hatch, moments before .50 Cal bullets start pinging off of it.

An explosion is heard from the left of the tank and a fireball the size of the trucks can be seen slowly coming to a halt. Hana re-acquires a new target and is ready to fire, but all of a sudden the trucks start losing speed, before stopping their chase altogether.

"Why did they stop?" Saori wonders, seeing the pickup trucks getting further and further.

"They probably realized that they cannot take down a tank with bullets only," Mako says with her sleepy voice.

"Whatever the case, we managed to escape. Now we only need to meet with the Antelope team. I just hope we don't have any more trouble along the way," Miho says, sighing loudly, before slumping back to the commander's seat, feeling really tired from what has happened today.

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 **A/N:Special thanks to SeekerMeeker for helping me with the revision. The second chapter should be rewritten in about a week. I hope you also like the new name of the story.** **Anyways,** **a** **s always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**


	2. Chapter 2: The Antelope

**The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 2: The Antelope**

* * *

As the midday sun blazed over the lands, a lone tank crawled through the dirt road, speeding at about 25 km/h. The trail it was leaving behind it was a cloud of dust, resembling the tail of a comet. It was a German Panzer IV ausf H, painted brown and equipped with a type of armored skirts known as the Schürtzen. The left side skirt of the hull bore a blue-and-white symbol, the emblem of the Oarai Girls High School, or what was left of it, since it was really scratched and faded. The right skirt, however, bore an anime-style Anglerfish that was on top condition, looking more cute than ferocious.

In the opened commander's hatch sat Miho, lazily gazing at the grassy hills that surrounded them. Though she was admiring this tranquil view, only the engine of the tank and its treads made any noise, and a thoughtful expression had settled on her face.

"Are you okay Miss Nishizumi?"

Snapping out of her train of thoughts, she looked down at the right side of the turret and spotted Yukari peeking out of the opened loader's hatch.

"I'm fine Yukari, just thinking things," Miho said in a nostalgic voice, before getting inside the tank, but leaving the hatch open. Looking around, everyone's hatches were open, so that the air would circulate inside the tank and cool it down a bit, since it had no air ventilation. Saori was quietly reading a novel, Hana was gazing at the grassy hills and Mako was driving the tank.

"Have you been thinking about our school?" Yukari asked.

"Yeah...I was just thinking how we all were before the Apocalypse. When we were all together and practiced Shenshadou," Miho answered back with a melancholic tone, sighing.

"It really was nice back then. If only the earthquakes never happened," Hana said, having taken an interest in the conversation.

"At least we still have the tank!" Saori said.

"And we are all together," Mako said from the driver's seat.

"I guess you are right," Miho nodded in agreement. "Though I hope the rest of our friends are fine," she said, traces of sadness mixed in her voice.

"I'm sure they are fine Miho," Hana told her, before continuing. "There must be an explanation for what we saw."

"For all we know, it could have been set up to cover their tracks. If they really had been attacked, there would have been a lot more bodies," Mako explained.

"I just hope my parents are okay," Yukari said with a concerned voice.

"I'm sure they are fine Yukari. After all, we checked the carrier and found no one on it," Miho said.

"I wonder how my parents would react if I told them I became a mercenary," Saori said with a thoughtful expression. "They would probably be all dramatic about it."

"My grandma would probably still scold me for not waking on time," Mako said half-jokingly, causing the rest of the girls to giggle.

Standing up from her seat, Miho started gazing at the grassy hills yet again, supporting her head with her hands and placing her elbows at the perimeter of the cupola.

 _I wonder how Sister and Mother would react if they learned that I have become a mercenary,_ she thought.

Looking up at the sky, she noticed clouds gathering in the distance. Gray and ominous, they started to gather up, and a single bolt of lightning appeared in the clouds.

 _It seems it will be raining later,_ she thought, before diving back to the tank to check the map and the tank's position, this time closing her hatch.

* * *

 **12th of May 2 Y.A.**

 **14:35 pm**

 **Route 29**

On a dirt road, not unlike the one the Panzer IV was, was a Panzer V "Panther" moving towards the designated rendezvous point. It, too, was picking up a dust cloud behind it, as it was moving at a brisk pace of 30 km/h. The Panther was painted sand yellow, but its turret was not the standard turret the Panther had. It was like an IS-3's turret, though narrower and taller, in order for the 7.5cm KwK 42 L/70 gun to be able to depress. Inside it were four people, a commander, a gunner, a loader and a driver.

"Are you sure we are going the right way?" the loader asked.

"For the fifth time, my dear loader, yes," the commander answered back, clearly irritated.

"Just making sure, Commander."

"I'm not a child you know."

"That's why you were complaining for thirty minutes straight, that our last mission was difficult?" the driver piped up.

"But these guys with the helmets were really skilled...and creepy. We put our lives on the line for a bunch of papers that have gibberish written all over them! I just can't understand what the Director thinks. Does he want to kill us?!" the commander complained hotly, flailing her hand while holding the papers.

"First of all, if someone didn't want to fucking build a new turret for the tank, we would still have the money that we painstakingly made the last month, and as a result, my dear Commander, we wouldn't have to take this mission!" the loader yelled at the commander.

"I think both of you should calm down. We made our choices and these are the results," the gunner calmly said, before changing the subject. "What's your opinion of the Anglerfish Team?"

"I can't wait to meet them! They were the ones that turned the Senshadou tournament upside down! And then is the match against Selection University!" the commander spoke like a true fangirl.

"You would have met them if you hadn't got banned by your own stupidity," the driver yelled.

"Mistakes were made, what can i do about it now?", the commander answered nonchalantly.

"One does not simply modify a Senshadou regulated tank and gets away with it. You were really lucky that you weren't banned forever!"

"Doesn't it bother you that they became mercenaries? I never expected for them to do such a job," the loader said.

"I'm sure they had their reasons. You didn't expect with all the chaos that they wouldn't have to take a life or two, did you? You do remember how we all met, right?" the commander said with a serious voice.

"Yes, so remind me to never hand you any knives," the loader responded half-jokingly.

"Whatever. We should be there in about five minutes. After we meet with them, we will receive orders on what to do," the commander said, eyeing the clouded sky through the cupola's vision ports.

* * *

 **14:39 pm**

 **Grid Point H45**

Coming to a halt, the Panzer IV stood motionless in the middle of a crossroads. Opening her hatch, Miho emerged from it and started scanning her surroundings. Everywhere she looked there were hills, more like big mounds of soil, making their location an ideal position to be ambushed. Near the crossroads stood an old decrepit house, barely able to stand. Its door and windows seemed to be broken, a clear sign that someone had broken inside it to loot whatever it had. Diving back briefly, she came out with a pair of binoculars and started to scan the small hills more carefully.

"Miporin, are we sure this is the place?" Saori asked, having too emerged from her own hatch.

"Yes, this is the location where we are supposed to meet," Miho answered back, continuing scanning the hills.

"Miss Nishizumi, I think i can hear an engine," Yukari said from her own hatch.

"Are you sure it isn't our engine?" Hana asked Yukari, not hearing anything except for the monotone sound of their own engine.

Closing her eyes and focusing a bit, Miho could hear an engine at the distance. Opening her eyes and looking with her binoculars at the direction of the sound, she spotted a Panther with a really weird turret, painted in sand yellow. Taking a better look, she could see a chibi antelope painted at the left side of the upper glacis. Lowering her binoculars, Miho dived back inside the tank.

"The Antelope team is here. Everyone, lets go and greet them. Mako, don't shut the engine, we might need to escape from here, since we could get ambushed at any moment," Miho said.

"Yes!" everyone responded, before exiting the tank and standing in front of it. All the girls could see the alien-looking tank coming closer and closer.

"What a weird looking turret," Saori whispered to Hana.

"Indeed. I think it's the first time any of us has seen anything like this," Hana answered back, intrigued by what she was seeing.

"Isn't this the coolest thing you have ever seen Miss Nishizumi?!" Yukari said, bouncing up and down with excitement, her eyes sparkling for some reason.

"Calm down Yukari," Miho said and Yukari instantly stopped bouncing, a small saddened expression on her face.

"Yes Miss Nishizumi," Yukari said, looking at the ground.

"Don't be like that Yukari, I'm sure you will have time to check their tank," Saori said to cheer up her friend and Yukari instantly raised her face, her eyes once again sparkling at the prospect of checking out this weird-looking war machine.

"So easy," Mako simply said, which earned giggles from the rest of the girls.

As the Panther was closing to the girls, it stopped about 10 meters away from them. Miho took a few steps forwards, stopping about 5 meters away from the Panther. Out of the hatch came a blonde girl. Standing at the engine deck of the tank, she said something at the rest of the crew that were inside, before jumping down on the ground.

"Hello," the blonde girl waved at Miho as she approached her. "You must be Miho Nishizumi. Nice to meet you," the blonde girl said,raising her hand for a handshake.

Raising her head to be able to look at the blonde girl that was about 173cm tall, she noticed the strange color of her eyes, which was light purple. The blonde had a smile on her face, but Miho could tell that something terrible was hiding beneath this facade, which made her feel very nervous.

"Y-Yes, nice to meet you too miss..." Miho trailed off, shaking her hand and trying to remember if she had ever heard the blonde's name.

"Oh, where are my manners? My name is Elpida Papaioannou, I am the commander of the Antelope Team. However, most people call me Odysseus, since it is easier for them to pronounce it than my real name," the girl said, releasing her grip on Miho's hand. In front of the Panther stood three figures, presumably the rest of the crew.

"The redhead with the green eyes is my driver, her name is Annabelle Morris," Odysseus said while pointing at Annabelle, who was slightly shorter than Odysseus. She waved back at Miho, though her movement was a bit sluggish, like she wanted to sleep.

"The guy with the blonde hair and blue eyes is my loader, his name is Tyler Davis," Odysseus said, but this time didn't even turned around to look at him, much less point at him.

"What is this, favoritism?!" the blond boy that was slightly shorter than Annabelle said, pointing at Odysseus accusingly, with Odysseus turning to face him and sticking her tongue out, causing the Anglerfish team to sweatdrop at her behavior.

"Why is their commander so childish?" Saori wondered aloud.

Taking a few steps forward and stopping besides his commander, a boy with short brown hair and hazel eyes, that was the same height as Hana, spoke with a calm and composed face. "Commander, I think you should behave properly," he said. Miho only after hearing him speak, noticed that his Japanese were perfect and not accented, like the rest of his friends.

 _They must be foreigners,_ she thought for a moment.

"Party pooper," Odysseus said with a pout, looking away from him.

Sighing slightly, he turned to face Miho, before speaking.

"My name is Akaza Reiji, it is an honor to meet you Miss Nishizumi," Reiji said, bowing slightly.

"Uhm, you don't need to be so formal," Miho said quickly, flailing her hands a bit.

"Well, you are famous, so it's only fair we show the proper respect," Odysseus said with a serious expression, throwing the girls off, since mere moments ago she was acting like a child.

"Reizei Mako, Takebe Saori, Isuzu Hana, Akiyama Yukari and you, Nishizumi Miho," Odysseus listed the names of each person in the Anglerfish team, before adding. "The strongest team Ooarai had. The team that managed to bring victory against all odds not once, but twice. And now, one of the most elite squads Blackout has, known as Black Wolves," she said with a mischievous smile. Miho and the others instantly felt a shiver running through their spines.

"Please stop scaring the others," Annabelle told her commander and close friend.

"Oh come on, it's fun teasing them," she said cheerfully, once more making a drastic behavior change. "That reminds me, have you contacted HQ on what we should do now?"

Having forgotten about it, Miho quickly turned to face Saori and told her to get in touch with the HQ and inform them they had met with the Antelope team.

"Do you mind if I ask you something about the tank?" Miho asked.

"Yeah, sure," Odysseus answered back.

"I heard that this Panther is salvaged from Kuromorimine. So...I was wandering if you had heard anything about the school ship or my sister," Miho said hesitantly.

"Well...we found the tank about a year ago abandoned at a field. So we don't know anything about the state of Kuromorimine, or any other school ship for that matter, but I'm sure your sister is fine. She is the heiress of the Nishizumi style after all," Odysseus said with a smile, though this time Miho couldn't say for sure if it was a facade or a genuine smile.

"Yeah, you are right," Miho smiled back at Odysseus.

"Miporin, I've got our orders!", Saori said as she walked quickly towards Miho, a piece of paper in her right hand. Taking the paper, Miho cleared her throat, before reading loudly the orders for everyone to hear.

"Both the Anglerfish and the Antelope teams are to proceed towards the bandits' main base. You are to infiltrate it and sabotage it for the upcoming assault force that will be sent to capture the base in two days time," Miho finished talking, an eerie silence hanging in the air.

"It seems it's time to hunt," Odysseus said with a grin. Thunder could be heard at the distance, as lightnings illuminated the dark sky, rain starting to fall.

Both crews enter their respective vehicle, but before Miho can enter through her hatch, a cannon report is heard. Looking at one of the hills, she spots an orange light coming towards her. Widening her eyes in response, she literally dives inside the tank, landing on the commander's seat with her hands and face. The shell barely misses the cupola and hits the ground, the impact throwing mud everywhere.

"Miho are you-" Hana tries to ask her friend if she is okay, only to be cut short from her.

"Mako get us out of here, we are under enemy attack!" Miho yells, as she tries to quickly turn her body upright, hitting Yukari slightly in the process.

Closing her hatch, she desperately tries to find from where the shot came, her eyes furiously scanning the surrounding hills as more shots start hitting the ground around the tank. Seeing a flash at a nearby hill, she spots a lone Soviet T-50 light tank, standing motionless and shooting at them.

"Hana 9 o'clock, at the top of the hill!" Miho says and the turret of the Panzer IV starts to rotate. Finding her target, Hana aims and fires, the 75mm shell arcing as it makes its way to the tank. After a few seconds, a light illuminates the hill as the light tank burns brightly, fire consuming its body. A shell slams on the frontal plate of the Panzer IV and explodes, shaking the whole tank violently, causing the crew to get stunned for a split second.

"What was that?!' Saori yells.

"They hit us with an HE shell!" Miho yells, before grabbing her binoculars and exiting her hatch to have a better view. Rain pours on top of her and inside the tank as she scans her surroundings. Peering through the binoculars, she quickly spots a T-34-85 on top of the hill in front of them. Before she can instruct Hana to target it though, a thunderclap is heard from her right and the T-34-85 explodes, its flaming turret making a short flight through the air, before landing on the wet grass and soil.

 _"Miho, take care of anyone that is in front of us, we will take care of anyone on our six,"_ she heard Odysseus calls through the static of the radio.

"OK, just make sure you will be safe," she responds, diving back at the tank once more.

Odysseus giggles in response, before cutting the transmission. As the Panther positions itself to look at the hills on its back, Hana manages to destroy yet another T-50.

"That's strange. Why are they just sitting motionless?" Hana wonders aloud.

"They might be inexperienced on how tank warfare works," Miho says, a small grin forming on her face.

As the shell exchange continues, Miho spots three T-50s rushing towards them, firing their cannons on the move, but missing by a wide margin.

"Mako, reverse the tank slowly. Hana, hit the tanks that are descending the hill!" Miho ordered.

The Panzer IV starts to slowly move backwards, as the turret aligns itself with the light tank in the middle. A cannon report is heard, that coincidentally matches the exact time a lightning falls in the landscape. The shell escapes the barrel, smoke following it from behind, and propels itself through the air, only to hit the upper glacis of the light tank. Penetrating its flimsy armor, the shell cuts the driver in two and hits the ammo rack of the tank, cooking the ammunition and causing a huge fireball to consume it. Its metal wreck skids on the muddy ground for about five meters before coming to a halt, the flames already consuming it, a plume of black smoke rising to the sky. The surviving light tanks go for one of the Panzer IV's flanks. Its turret starts to rotate to the left and once Hana's crosshairs are over the Soviet light tank, she fires and the tank bursts in flames, the shell hitting the engine block and destroying it completely.

"Hana, target at 3 o'clock, one hundred meters and closing!", Miho says quickly as the T-50 fires, the shell missing by a wide margin.

The turret rotates to the right as fast as it can, but its speed is not enough to target the light tank.

"The turret isn't rotating fast enough, we won't make it!", Hana whispered, concentrating her hardest to fire the moment the tank enters her sight.

But out of sheer luck, or sheer idiocy of the enemy crew, the light tank swerves suddenly on its right, in a bid to throw off Hana's aiming, but unavoidably passing in front of the 7.5cm KwK 40/L48...and Hana isn't any ordinary gunner. The moment the light tank enters her field of vision, she pulls the trigger, causing the tank to rock backwards, as the shell launches itself out of the barrel and passes cleanly through the engine block of the enemy tank, landing about 50 meters away from its intended target . The engine instantly catches fire, but due to its momentum, the tank keeps rolling for another 20 meters before coming to a halt, being nothing more than a metal coffin on fire. The crew tries to escape, but it is too late. The flames are already consuming their bodies, as evidenced by their hair-raising screams that come from the insides of the wreck.

As the Panzer IV comes to a stop, Miho exhales loudly, since the threats on their side have been neutralized. Looking at the back of the tank almost instinctively though, she finds to her utmost horror that another T-50 has somehow sneaked behind them, aiming directly at the engine block at point blank range.

"Mako, rotate, rotate!" she screams, terror written all over her face.

The tank starts rotating counterclockwise, but before the T-50 can fire, a loud _bang_ is heard, followed by the sound of grinding steel. Miho looks with a surprised expression at the miracle that has happened in front of her. The Panther has rammed the T-50 with such force, that it has forcefully moved it sideways at least 5 meters. Reversing a bit, the Panther's gun aims at its wounded prey that makes no move, its crew probably stunned from the impact. The Panther fires, and the turret flies off for a short distance, before hitting the ground with a _thud_. Miho opens her hatch and sees Odysseus doing the same.

"Thanks for saving us!" Miho yells at her.

"No problem. Though I think we may have overstayed our welcome here," Odysseus responds back with a silly grin, before diving back inside.

By now, the rain has stop falling, as the warm sunlight of the sun manages to pierce through the dispersing clouds that covered the sky. Miho looks at the numerous plumes of smoke that litter the landscape, originating from blackened metal wrecks. Diving back inside the tank, she closes her hatch.

"Mako, take us out of here," she says tiredly, exhaustion finally catching up with her.

The two tanks slowly make their way towards their destination, their tracks leaving their own marks at the wet and soft soil.

* * *

 **A/N: Here is the rewritten chapter 2. I think it is better than the original. Once again, special thanks to SeekerMeeker for helping with the revision of the chapter. Anyways, a** **s always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and** **there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**

 _Explanations_

Y.A. : Years after the Apocalypse


	3. Chapter 3: The Black Wolf

**The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 3: The Black Wolf**

* * *

Miho opened her eyes slowly, peering into the relatively dark interior of the crew compartment of the Panzer IV. Rubbing her eyes with her left hand and blinking a few times to focus her eyesight, Miho looked around. She immediately noticed that she was alone inside the tank, the rest of the girls missing. She also noticed that there was complete silence, meaning that the tank's engine was off.

 _I must have fallen asleep_ , she thought as she exited through her hatch and climbed down from the tank. Scanning her surroundings, everywhere see looked were trees that were illuminated by the evening sun.

 _We are in a forest?_ she thought. _If so, where are the others?_ Rounding the tank, she quickly spotted Saori speaking with Hana, Mako and Annabelle.

"Miporin, you woke up!" Saori said, seeing Miho walking slowly towards them.

"Have you had a good sleep Miho?" Hana asked her friend.

"Yeah, I feel much better now. Uhm, where is Yukari?" Miho asked, looking around for a certain tank-loving individual.

"She is with Odysseus, scouting the edge of the forest," Annabelle said, pointing at the direction, where the edge of the forest was.

"I see. What time is it?"

"Around 7 pm. Though we have been here since 5."

"I have been sleeping for at least two and a half hours? Then why didn't anyone wake me up?" Miho said, a bit surprised at how much she had slept.

"You seemed like you needed some sleep, so we decided to leave you rest up a bit," Hana answered.

"Hey girls!" Before Miho could respond, a loud voice is heard, accompanied by the sound of leafs getting crashed and boots hitting dirt.

"Welcome back Commander. How was your excursion?" Annabelle asked the blonde girl that stood in front of her. A bit behind Odysseus was Yukari, walking towards Miho and the rest of the girls.

"Good evening Miss Nishizumi," Yukari said, waving at Miho.

"Good evening Yukari, how was the scouting?", Miho asked.

"It was fine, we only went until the edge of the forest," she answered back.

"What did you find?"

"The base's perimeter is five meters from the edge of the forest and is only a chain link fence. We didn't see any patrols passing by, which is weird," Odysseus piped up, having overheard Miho's question. "Though it would be better to wait for intel from HQ about the enemy's strength."

"You know, we are the ones that must contact them," Annabelle reminded her commander.

"Oops, I forgot about it. I'll go and contact them now," she said and ran to the tank to contact HQ.

"It's a wonder how she is still alive," Annabelle sighed loudly.

"And you aren't the only one with that question in mind."

"Tyler and Reiji, it seems you made it back just fine."

"It's not like we went out of the bounds of the forest. We also found some interesting things," Tyler said after waving at the rest of the girls.

"It seems that their patrols are very small and scarce. We also found a large cliff that is next to the east side of the base," Reiji said calmly.

"It could provide a very good sniping position," Miho said with a thoughtful expression.

"Hey, I got our infooooo!" Odysseus, having tripped on the root of one of the trees, screamed as she crashed on the ground face first, a loud thud marking her contact with the dirt.

"Seriously, can you not act childish, clumsy or unprofessionally for just a second?" Tyler said, while Annabelle dusted off some of the dirt and leafs that had stuck on Odysseus' face and hair.

"Thanks mom!" Odysseus said with a silly grin, which made the girls giggle a little.

"You never learn, do you?" Annabelle sighed lightly, a smile forming on her face.

Helping her to stand up, Annabelle proceeded to pat her clothes lightly to clean them. "Thanks for helping me," Odysseus said with a sincere smile on her face, before turning to face Miho. "I got the info from HQ."

"I think we should first build a campfire. It will be nightfall soon, so we have to gather some firewood," Reiji suggested and everyone nodded.

"I'll go gather some firewood then!" Odysseus said and bolted deeper into the forest, looking for firewood.

"I'll go help her. I really can't leave her alone," Annabelle said, before following Odysseus.

"They act like mother and child," Mako bluntly said, causing both Reiji and Tyler to laugh.

"That's a first! I never thought about it!" Tyler managed to say between his laughs.

"Indeed. Though I'd say Annabelle wouldn't be too happy about it," Reiji said with a smile.

"How close are they?" Saori asked.

"They are best friends. Though most of the time Annabelle tends to watch over Odysseus to makes sure she won't do anything dumb."

"I think we should help with the campfire," Miho interjected and everyone nodded in agreement.

* * *

 **2 hours later**

Night has fallen once more, as the sun has given its position to the moonless sky that is illuminated by the bright stars that adore it. Deep into the forest burns a small campfire, illuminating the surrounding area with much needed light. The light illuminated the right side of the tanks, which had been placed between the light source and the enemy base to make sure the campfire wouldn't be spotted. Around the campfire sat nine people, seven girls and two boys, casually conversing.

"And that's what the UAVs could see," Odysseus said, having told them what information she had gotten from HQ.

"It is troubling. This is supposed to be their main base, why would they have so few forces stationed, it doesn't make any sense," Miho said, trying to make sense of the situation.

"Maybe they have sent them somewhere?" Saori suggested.

"That wouldn't make any sense. Since it is their main base, you'd expect them to leave behind a sizeable force to defend it," Tyler said, throwing some branches in the campfire to keep it lit.

"It could be a trap. Make yourself seem vulnerable and when your target comes, ambush them," Mako said.

"That would be too risky. And these are bandits we are talking about, they are the barbarians of the games," Odysseus said.

"Implying that they are too dumb for such a strategy?" Annabelle asked.

"Exactly!" Odysseus responded with a grin.

"Underestimate the enemy and you will be the one who will be lying six feet under the surface of the Earth," Reiji told his commander with a serious expression.

"I don't think anyone has asked this, but how are we gonna infiltrate their base?" Hana asked.

"Remember the chain link fence we talked about? We can enter from there, all we need are some metal cutters," Odysseus reminded the rest.

"I think I might have one at my backpack," Yukari said.

"What about the sabotage?" Miho asked Odysseus.

"Don't worry about it, we have around 2 kilograms of C-4 in our tank, we can use it to blow up the most important buildings."

"Why do you have 2 kilograms worth of C-4 in your tank?" Miho asked, sweatdropping mentally.

"We stole it from the enemy on our previous mission," Annabelle said.

"Do the information we got indicated which structures we need to sabotage?" Yukari asked.

"Yep. There are three structures that are of extreme importance." Procuring a piece of paper that has a very simplified layout of the enemy base drawn with a marker, Odysseus points at three squares of different sizes. "The first one is their command center that is in the middle of the base. It might be best to target it first, since we could find valuable information about the bandits' movements."

"Next are the watchtowers. There is one at the edge of the forest, one near the cliff and two near the main entrance of the base."

"Finally, there is a SAM site near the first watchtower that must be destroyed at all costs, or the assault force will be decimated," Odysseus finished speaking, tapping at the smallest of the black squares.

"The assault force will be consisted of five helicopters, three Apache Lomgbows and two Blackhawks."

"Can't they just bomb the base or only the SAM site? Why do we have to infiltrate and sabotage them?" Annabelle asked Odysseus, quite confused as to why they had to risk their lives, since they could just bomb the base to oblivion.

"The Director wants the base captured and with the least possible damage," Odysseus answered back.

"And they want us to risk our lives, so that they will be able to just steamroll over the enemy...great," Tyler said with a grumpy face.

"That's our orders, nothing we can do about it," Annabelle said, shrugging at Tyler.

"How will we infiltrate the base?" Reiji asked Odysseus.

"About that," Odysseus begun, explaining with as much details as possible her plan of infiltration. After about two hours of revising and refining, the two tank crews finally managed to come up with a plan of attack, and then called it a day.

* * *

 **Friday**

 **13th of May 2 Y.A.**

 **East of the enemy's base**

On the top of the rocky hill that stands east of the base stood two figures, gazing down at the buildings that filled the base.

"It was a nice trek. Though it would be better if it was a bit windy," one of the figures said.

"It would also be nice if we didn't have had to stumble upon a patrol," the other figure complained. "Anyway, enough complaining, let's set up our sniper's nest."

"Reiji, does your commander always forms such dangerous plans?"

"Not always Miss Isuzu. There are times that she will think of a safe plan," Reiji told Hana, still unpacking their equipment.

"Meaning that most of the time, her plans are reckless," Hana said, while setting her sniper rifle.

"Unfortunately, yes. Though she will always ask the others if they do agree with her plans. Also, most of the time, her recklessness does pay off," Reiji responded. Taking his binoculars out of his backpack and laying prone at the edge of the hill, he started scanning the enemy base.

 _"Reiji, are you in position?"_ , Reiji heard a voice asking through his earpiece.

"Yes commander," he responded back.

 _"Good, I'll get in touch with you when the time comes. And make sure no one finds out your position."_

"Understood commander," he said, before terminating the transmission.

"Everything fine?" Hana asked.

"Yes. Mind if I ask you a question?", Reiji asked, having turned to face Hana.

"What is it?"

"How did you end up becoming mercenaries? You don't have to answer me if you don't want."

"We...kinda found ourselves in a situation where we had to," she said, peering through her sniper rifle's scope and scanning for signs of any patrols, she too laying prone at the edge of the hill.

"I see," he said, returning to scanning the base with his binoculars.

"Mind if I ask you a question?"

"Sure, go ahead."

"How did you meet? You and the rest of your team that is."

"That is a long story and not one of the best moments in my life," Reiji giggled a bit.

"I believe we have plenty of time."

"Indeed we have. Let me start at how I met Tyler. It was about a week after the earthquakes stopped-"

* * *

"And I was like, he is cute but what if he wants something more serious? I'm not ready for something like this. I mean, I want to get married and have a family some day, but what if he is not the right one? And if he is, what will happen if he gets injured or worse out there? I am not ready for that either."

 _Thank God for my sisters' constant gossiping back home or else my mind would have melted by now!_ Tyler thought, trying to withstand Saori's constant ranting about cute boys and relationships. _Father, if you are still alive, I'm gonna bury you myself for giving me your charming skills!_

"Why are you looking grumpy?" Saori asked, seeing Tyler's grumpy expression.

"Hm? Oh, nothing, just thinking random stuff," Tyler responded back. "Are we done Miho?"

"Just give me a moment," Miho said, peering through her binoculars at the base.

The three of them were laying prone at the edge of the forest, scouting the base's perimeter to find the best infiltration point. Though they were no patrols passing by, Miho, Saori and Tyler still were hiding behind some big bushes to make sure they wouldn't get spotted.

"We are done checking this point. There are three more to check and then we should return to the tanks." Getting up and patting her uniform lightly, Miho started walking towards the next point they had to check, with Saori and Tyler in tow.

 _Since it is gonna be at least an hour more until we head back to the tanks, let's make the conversation more interesting_ , Tyler thought, not wanting to pass the hour by listening to Saori talk about boys and relationships.

"So, from where are you Saori? I am from the United States. More specifically from Los Angeles, California," he said, which earned an awed expression from Saori, who was looking at him with wide eyes. Even Miho turned momentarily, having grown a bit curious from where Tyler is.

"Really?! I mean, your accent is slightly off, but that you would be from the US...oh,right, I am from Ooarai. It is in Ibaraki prefecture," Saori responded, still amazed by the fact that Tyler was from America. As the trio moved to the next point, Saori and Tyler kept conversing, with Saori speaking about Ooarai and how she got into Senshadou.

* * *

"So, you were the one who designed the turret?" Yukari asked, her eyes gleaming with excitement. In front of her stood the mysterious Panther of the Antelope team, with its weird turret.

"Pretty much, though we all paid for it," Odysseus answered from the top of the engine deck where she was sitting.

"And in return, we gave it a nickname. Since the turret Odysseus designed was inspired from the IS-3 turret, we gave it the nickname Panther S," Annabelle said, sitting right next to Odysseus.

"Ohhhh, so it was inspired by the IS-3 turret. And what does the S mean? Is it to indicate a variant, like with our own Panzer IV?"

"No. The S stands for Stalin, an inside jock of our team," Odysseus said.

"There is this game Odysseus plays, where you can play with tanks of different nations from WW2. The Soviets have tanks with the worst gun handling the game has, yet these tanks can pull miracle shots some times," Annabelle said.

"And because of that, there was a meme that Stalin guided the shots to the enemy. So we named our tank the Panther S," Odysseus finished Annabelle's sentence.

"I see. Also, from where are you? I noticed that your accents are slightly off, meaning that you are from another country," Yukari said with curiosity.

"Annabelle's from England and I am from Greece. We are, or were, transfer students," Odysseus answered.

"Transfer students? From which-" Yukari tried to ask but was cut short by Odysseus, who raised her hand to motion to her to stop speaking.

"Yes, understood HQ. Over and out," she said, before pressing her earpiece on her left ear once.

"What was it?" Annabelle asked quickly, having spotted Odysseus' serious expression.

"They told me the assault will be happening at 1 am instead of 7," she said, clearly irritated by this turn of events.

"They pushed the assault forward? But why too much?"

"They said they found a spy in Blackout, so they fear that this mission may be compromised."

"So, we abort?"

"No, our orders remain the same. We infiltrate and sabotage the base. It's just gonna be a really close call," Odysseus said, scratching her head in irritation.

"Should we inform the rest?" Mako asked, being next to Yukari this entire time and listening to the conversation.

"We will, when they come back. Anyway, I think it's time to gather our equipment," Odysseus told Yukari, jumping down from the engine deck and making her way towards a metal crate that had arrived via drone at the middle of the previous night.

* * *

 **11:40 pm**

 **North of the enemy base**

"So, here is the plan. Me and Yukari will infiltrate the base and place the explosives. We will infiltrate from the northern part of the base. After placing the explosives on the first watchtower, I'll go towards the east and put explosives at the other watchtower, while Yukari will go and put some explosives at the SAM site. After that, she'll go for the command building and see if she can find any information. If everything goes well, we will extract before the assault force arrives." Odysseus spoke as she eyed everyone, her childish behavior completely vanished and replaced by a serious one.

"What happens if you get spotted?" Saori asked with great concern, worried about Yukari's well being.

"We pop out a flare, detonate the explosives and you come to pick us up," she answered back at Saori. "And we have Reiji and Hana to cover us, so it should be fine."

"Yukari, will you be fine?" Miho asked her friend, who was checking her new equipment.

"Yes Miss Nishizumi. After all, it's not the first time I am infiltrating a place," she responded back, checking her suppressed Glock-34.

"This isn't like back then Yukari. You could get injured or worse," Miho said with a worried expression.

"Don't worry Miss Nishizumi, I'll be fine. Believe in me," Yukari said, clasping both of her hands on Miho's.

As much as Miho wanted to protest, she had to believe in her friend's words.

"Ready?" Odysseus asked Yukari, having finished checking her equipment.

"Yes," Yukari simply responded.

The two girls made their way towards the chain link fence as silently as it was possible. Reaching the edge of the forest, both of them slowly scanned their surroundings, before approaching the fence. From the backpack she was carrying with her, she retrieved a bolt cutter and handed it to Odysseus.

"So, how is the uniform?" Odysseus asked while she was cutting the fence slowly, to make sure she wouldn't make too much noise.

"I feel like it is a bit tight," Yukari complained, eyeing the black elastic uniform she wore for the infiltration.

"You tell me. I feel like my chest is going to implode," Odysseus complained. Indeed, it seemed like her uniform was a size too small for her ample chest, which made her feel uncomfortable. "But if they will help us, we just have to put up with it for now."

Cutting a sizable hole in the fence, she gave the bolt cutter back to Yukari, who put it back at the backpack, before rejoining Odysseus at the other side of the fence.

They both made their way towards the first watchtower, making sure to avoid the spotlight that scanned the nearby grounds.

Reaching the base of the watchtower, Odysseus procures a decent amount of C-4 and some detonators, she places the C-4 at each pillar of the watchtower, before setting the detonators at a set frequency.

"This C-4 should be enough for the SAM site and the command center. Also, see if you can find any information about the bandits. After you place the explosives, just get out of here as fast as you can, OK?", Odysseus said, handing Yukari one kilogram of C-4.

"Understood," she said.

"Oh, before I forget it, if you see anything suspicious, just contact me. If you get spotted use your flare immediately."

And with that, the two girls take their own ways, with Odysseus going east, while Yukari goes to the SAM site that is in the west.

Approaching the SAM site, she could clearly make out the shape of a truck. In its back were two rectangular boxes that were tilted at a 45 degrees angle and had multiple holes in the surfaces that looked at the sky and ground. There were three bandits in front of the truck, around an LED lamp. Unholstering her suppressed pistol, she aims at the head of one of the bandits and pulls the trigger. A _puff_ is heard, instantly accompanied by two other _puffs_. The bandits fall to the ground with a single bullet hole in their heads, three _thuds_ marking their contact with it. Yukari quickly approaches the dead bandits and closes the LED lamp, darkness consuming the space around the truck. Reloading her pistol, she takes out of her backpack some C-4 and after placing it at the holes of the rectangular boxes at the back of the truck, she sets the detonators' frequency and starts making her way to the command center. While making her way to the structure that was in the middle of the base, she notices that there is very little light and almost no guards or patrols. After about ten minutes, she finally makes it at the command center.

Crouching behind some crates, she scans the building for any guards and to her surprise, she finds none. Pressing her earpiece once, she speaks in a low voice, "Odysseus, this is Yukari. I am at the command center and I see no guards. Something's not right."

"I copy you Yukari. Proceed with the mission. If you see anything weird, fire your flare immediately."

"Understood". Pressing her earpiece once, she quickly runs to the command center's door which, again to her surprise, is unlocked. Opening the door, she quickly enters and hides behind a cabinet. _There is no one here. Something's definitely wrong._ She then proceeds to place C-4 in the most important rooms. After that, she starts walking down the corridor that leads to the command operations room. But as she reaches for the door, it suddenly opens and two men with assault rifles enter the corridor. Thinking quickly, she punches the first man at the center of his chest, forcing him to fall in his knees and gasp for air. She then pivots on her right foot and sidekicks the second man who falls with his back on the ground. Pulling a knife from her right boot, she slits the first man's throat, painting the narrow walls of the corridor red, before throwing the knife at the second man who is lifting his head, the blade piercing his forehead and making his head arch backwards, hitting the floor with a dull _thud_. She quickly walks to the second man and removes the knife, wiping it with his clothes and sheathing it, before entering the command room. The room was quite small and only had a wooden desk that was littered with various papers and some folding chairs. Walking slowly towards the desk she starts scanning through the various papers quickly, her eyes widening at what she's reading.

 _Emergency orders from the headquarters. One of our outposts has been compromised and some of the contracted bandits have informed us that the enemy might know your location. Our spy has also informed us that one of Blackout's elite squads is meeting at these coordinates with another squad, in order to formulate a plan of attack probably. You are to ambush them there and silence them. This elite squad known as "Black Wolves" must be destroyed at any costs. Additionally, all of the school ships and their territory is now under our control. The collaborators from the Pravda Girls High School say that the factory our troops are building should finish within the next few days. Also, some girls from the school ships have been taken as hostages to dissuade the rest from trying anything malicious. May Japan return to its former glory. Resurrected Imperial Japanese Army_.

Thinking quickly, she snatches the documents and shoves them inside the backpack, before pressing her earpiece once to talk.

But before she opens her mouth to speak, she feels a strong urge to duck and so she flattens herself against the ground mere moments before the butt of a rifle passes millimeters away from her head. Turning her body so she can face upwards, she draws her gun and fires four times at a man that sneaked inside the room to knock her out, hitting him in the abdomen, chest and head. The man's body falls limply on the ground. Quickly standing up, she scans the room with her silenced pistol and after a few tense seconds, she slowly lowers it.

Standing at the left of the body, she notices that the man's clothing isn't the usual clothes bandits wear, but a military uniform that closely resembles the one used by the I.J.A. in WW2.

"Odysseus, can you hear me?" she says, but gets no response.

"Odysseus, do you copy?"

Still no response.

"Can anyone hear me?" she says loudly, but she is greeted by silence.

 _The enemy must be jamming our communications._ Checking her backpack once again, she fishes out a loaded flare gun. Peeking from the side of the door at the corridor, she finds no one, so she quickly traverses it to exit the building. The moment she steps out, the whole base gets flooded with bright white light, temporarily blinding Yukari, who instinctively puts her hands in front of her face to shield her eyes. After a second, she lowers them, only to find at least 5 guys running to her direction, assault rifles raised and aimed at her. Firing the flare in the air, she quickly tosses the now empty flare gun and starts running at the closest building for cover, bullets passing by her and barely missing her body.

Rounding the corner of one of the buildings, she crashes on one of the soldiers, forcing him to drop his assault rifle. Unholstering her own, the man swiftly punches her in the abdomen, causing her grip on the gun to loosen and fall off her hands. Clutching her stomach and taking a few steps back, she gets punched on the face in such a way, that her backpack gets off her back and falls to the ground, just a bit further from where Yukari has fallen. Yukari crawls to the backpack and puts her right hand inside it, desperate to find something to defend herself. The man quickly gets behind Yukari and grabbing her left foot, he drags her closer to him and hunches over her, ready to grab the back of her neck to pin her down.

Yukari spins her whole body and strikes the man's head with the bolt cutter, fracturing his skull instantly. As the man screams in pain from the fracture he just acquired, lying in the ground with his hands over the impact point, Yukari gets up and stands over his head. Raising the bolt cutter, she brings it down like an executioner's axe, hitting the man in the head once again and killing him instantly.

Looking at her back, she finds a man already thrusting his knife towards her face,her eyes widening in fear at the prospect of dying unless she somehow manages to evade the attack.

"Look out!" she hears a voice yelling and feels something pushing her sideways. Losing her balance, she falls to the ground yet again and hears the sound of metal slashing flesh, along with the grunting of a familiar voice. Turning to see to whom the voice belongs, she gasps at the sight in front of her. Odysseus is standing at where she was moments ago, her right hand holding a blade that is lodged deep in the assailant's neck and her left hand holding the man's right hand, with the tip of his blade having pierced her left eye. Removing his blade, Odysseus clenches her teeth as hard as she can, feeling pain all over the left side of her face, blood flowing from the damaged eye at an alarming rate.

Twisting her blade, she lets the now dead man fall to the ground, before herself falls to her knees, clasping her left hand over her destroyed left eye.

"Odysseus!" Yukari yells, running at the side of Odysseus and helping her to stand up. "We need to stop the bleeding, do you have any gauze?!"

"Forget that, we need to get the hell out of here," Odysseus manages to say, panting heavily.

In front of them appears yet another enemy, but before he can raise his weapon and fire at the girls, his head gets blown to pieces, with blood, brain matter, flesh and bone bits splattering everywhere.

* * *

"Good shot, his head is history," Reiji says, peering with his binoculars at the headless body and the two girls.

"Four targets closing at them, distance, 800 meters."

Shifting her aim, Hana finds the next targets and fires, the bullet piercing through the chest of one of the soldiers. She shifts her aim yet again and another one falls dead. The other two quickly scramble for any available cover, not wanting to have the same fate as their friends.

"What time is it?" she asks Reiji, taking this opportunity to reload her sniper rifle.

"12:45 am. Just fifteen minutes before the assault force arrives," he says, checking for any other targets near the girls. "I hope Miho and the others noticed the flare, since comms are being jammed. Hm?"

Noticing Odysseus doing some strange moves with her hands, he quickly procures a small detonator that lies next to him.

"What was Odysseus doing?" Hana asks Reiji, having too spotted the strange hand movements.

"She signaled me to detonate the explosives," he answers back, before pressing a small red button.

Explosions shake the base, as all the targets, except for the command center, get obliterated.

"Looks like the calvary's here," he says, seeing two tanks bust through the main gate of the base, the two watchtowers sporting a lifeless body each, courtesy of Hana's sniper rifle.

* * *

Men scramble around, as the metal gate gets rammed by the Panzer IV, its bow machine gun raining lead all over the place.

"Mako, don't stop at anything! Run over people if you have to, we need to get at Yukari as soon as possible!" Miho yells from her seat, popping out from her hatch and striking down any enemy she sees with her assault rifle.

"Roger," Mako responds, making her way towards the still standing command center. Behind the Panzer IV was the Panther S, following Miho and the rest closely. Bullets were pinging off the steel plates of the tanks, the sound resembling rain.

"What are the chances of simply raining outside?" Tyler asks jokingly.

"You have better chances winning the lottery mate!" Annabelle says from her seat.

As both tanks reach the center of the base, they spot Yukari, who is still supporting Odysseus, hiding behind some crates to shield themselves against any incoming fire.

"Yukari!" Saori yells, exiting the tank from her hatch and running towards them.

"Mako, shield them with the tank!" Miho tells her driver, having dived back inside to reload her weapon.

As the Panzer IV positions itself in front of the girls to cover them from any incoming bullets, Annabelle moves as close to them as possible, with Tyler exiting the tank to help the rest carry Odysseus at the side of the Panzer IV.

"Wow commander, you look like shit," Tyler says to his commander, taking the place of Yukari to act as Odysseus' support.

Odysseus lets a weak laugh escape her lips, her whole body devoid of any strength. Suddenly, two T-50 light tanks and a T-34 medium tank appear, aiming their guns at the two half-crewed tanks.

"Alright, everyone stop firing!" a loud voice is heard booming and the sounds of weapons discharging instantly seizes, replaced by a very tense silence.

A man with brown hair and eyes, almost as tall as Odysseus, casually walks towards Miho and the rest, donning a very impressive military uniform. Miho can see that he is flanked by two soldiers with the same military uniform as him, though less flashier.

Stopping a good distance away from the Panzer IV, he clears his throat, before speaking. "You must be the commander of these kids here," he says mockingly while eyeing the rest of the girls. "Though I must profess, I never expected a bunch of eighteen years old girls to be one of the elite squads in Blackout."

"How do you know about us?" Miho demands, unfazed by the sight of at least twenty soldiers and three tanks aiming their guns at her.

"We have our sources. Especially for you Miho Nishizumi," he says, causing Miho to be taken aback a little. "Command thinks you will be a wrench at their plans of uniting Japan, so they want you out of the game."

"What is this, a cliche anime plot?" Saori whispers, hiding behind the tanks with the others.

"What do you mean, uniting Japan?" Miho asks, confused by the man's statement.

"I think I told too much. Though let me tell you one final thing," he says with a dark grin. "Tell your sister I send her my regards."

"What?!" she whispers, her eyes widening and cold sweat running down her face.

Before the man can give the order to open fire, the sound of beating rotor blades fill the air, as explosions shake the base once more.

"What is going on?!" the man yells, as chaos ensues, with people running all over the place. By now, the assault force, in the form of three Apache Longbows and two Blackhawks, has arrived, gunning any enemy they see. Multiple screeches are heard as one of the Apaches fires its rocket pods at the tanks, completely decimating them and turning them to twisted pieces of metal and fire. One particular rocket lands really close to the man, who is hurled from the explosion about 5 meters from where he was standing.

"I thought the assault was to be done later...and what happened to the SAM site?" the man grunts as he tries to slowly sit up from the ground, only for his field of vision to be filled by a black blur, before something kicks him on the face, sending him down to the ground again, this time gazing at the black, starless sky.

"How do you know my sister? And what did you mean 'to send her your regards'?" Miho asks in a low voice, yet loud enough to be heard over the gunfire and explosions going off in the background. She stands next to the man, her right foot pinning him on the ground, while her rifle is aimed on his head.

"What could I possibly mean Black Wolf?" he says with a sly smile, which promptly disappears when he looks at Miho's face. Her eyes have changed color from brown to red, with intense killing intent escaping them.

"Y-You are a monster, stay away from me!" he screams, trying to unpin himself, but failing miserably.

"How do you know my sister and where is she!" she yells, silencing the man, who has terror etched all over his face.

"I-I'll tell you, j-just don't kill me," he whispers, his tough act having completely dissolved by Miho's piercing gaze.

Unbeknownst to her however, one of the soldiers has managed to find himself amidst the chaos behind Miho and seizing this opportunity, he raises his rifle to fire at her head. Before he can do that though, a ginger haired girl tackles him on the ground. Landing on his back, the soldier tries to aim his assault rifle at Saori, who grabs the weapon and forcefully rips it off the man's hands, throwing it away. She then mounts him, before throwing a punch at his head. The man blocks the punch and grabs Saori's head with both hands, headbutting her as hard as he can. Saori gets off the man and stumbles a bit backwards, grabbing her head with both hands while trying to fight the pounding pain. The man quickly gets off the ground and unseathes his knife, ready to strike at Saori, who doesn't seem to have noticed what he is holding on his right hand. Saori trips on her own feet and falls to the ground, barely missing the thrusted blade. The man tries to stab Saori at her chest, since she is lying on the ground, but he gets shot from behind once, the bullet hitting his heart and killing him instantly.

"Are you okay?"

Looking up, she finds Tyler with a pistol on his left hand, smoke escaping its barrel.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. How is Miho?" she asks, wincing a bit from the pain she feels.

"Look for yourself."

Standing up and looking at where Miho was last time, she finds her standing next to a body, gunpowder smoke escaping her rifle's barrel.

"Miporin, are you okay?" Saori asks and tries to take a step forward, only to suddenly feel dizzy and lose her balance. Thankfully, Tyler manages to catch her before she crashes to the ground.

"Take it easy there," he says cautiously.

"Saori, are you okay?" Miho says in alarm, dashing at her best friend's side. Of note, her eyes have returned to their normal brown color.

"I'll be fine Miho, I just felt a little dizzy for a moment, that's all," she quickly says to calm down her worried friend.

By now, most of the base's personnel has been dealt with, so the transport helicopters are unloading their passengers, which consist of a total of four squads, who immediately start clearing the buildings of any soldiers. One of the transport helicopters stays on the ground, since it has two medics with it.

"I think you should get checked by the medics," Miho says to Saori.

"I told you already Miporin, I'll be al- woahhh!" Saori cries out, as Tyler lifts her with both of his hands. "Wh-Wh-What do you think you are doing?!" she yells at Tyler, her face as red as Annabelle's hair.

"Obviously taking you to the medics. You are barely able to stand, much less to walk," he responds back, making his way to the landed helicopter.

"What is he, a knight in shining armor carrying a princess?" a voice grumbles.

Looking at her left, she finds Odysseus with a grumpy face, being supported by Annabelle and Yukari.

"What happened to your eye?" Miho asks worryingly, noticing the streaks of dried blood that have formed on the part of her face under her left eye,which is covered by her left hand.

"It is my fault Miss Nishizumi. I left my guard down and nearly got stabbed, but Odysseus took the hit for me," Yukari says, her gaze glued to the ground.

"Oh come on, it's not your fault. I was the one who pushed you out of the way and stood there to take the hit," Odysseus says to Yukari, irritated by her behavior.

"Anyway, we better get you to the medics. At least now you can be a pirate," Annabelle jokes at Odysseus, who mimics a pirate just for the giggles.

As the trio moves at the landed helicopter, Miho sighs loudly, sitting on the ground, her mind already thinking various things. An engine is heard, along with the clattering of treads, as the Panzer IV stops in front of her. Shutting the engine, Mako exits the tank from her hatch and jumps down on the ground.

"Are you okay Miho?," Mako asks, sitting next to Miho.

"Yeah, just thinking some things," she answers back, looking between her legs and on the ground.

"Is it about your sister?" Mako asks, in which Miho nods reluctantly and slowly.

"I'm sure she will be fine Miho. She is your sister after all. Do you know where Saori is?" Mako asks, changing the subject.

"She is in the landed helicopter, getting treated by the medics."

Saying nothing more, Mako gets up and makes her way to the helicopter to see how Saori is.

Looking up at the starless, black sky, Miho wishes that her sister is doing okay, because she wouldn't be able to forgive herself if something were to happen to her.

* * *

 **3 hours later**

"Yes, understood," Miho says in one of the squad leaders of the mercenaries that came as reinforcements. After saluting him, she makes her way towards one of the Blackhawks that is already spooling its blades for takeoff. Entering the helicopter, she finds the crews of both tanks sleeping. It has been an exhausting day to say the least. After closing the cabin's door, Miho notices that Saori is sleeping next to Tyler, her head touching the side of Tyler's forearm. _Who knows_ , she thinks with a smile, before sitting between Hana and Yukari. As the helicopter lifts itself and starts heading north, Miho feels her eyelids becoming heavy, exhaustion having once again caught up with her, finally falling asleep.

* * *

 **A/N:There goes chapter 3,finally rewritten. I'd love to write something here, but I am too tired for it, so the notorious copy-pasted message will have to do. Anyway, a** **s always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and** **there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**

 _Explanation_

Panther S: A Panther with a redesigned turret that resembles an IS-3 turret. It uses the 7.5cm KwK 42 L/70 gun, that was standard to all Panther variants. The S stands for Stalin, an inside joke between the Antelope team's crew. Also, the radio has been moved to the commander's seat, using the space in the radio operator's potision to store extra shells.


	4. Chapter 4: Countdown

**The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 4: Countdown**

* * *

 **Saturday**

 **21st of May 2 Y.A.**

 **Blackout central base**

 **7:29 am**

It was yet another beautiful, sunny day at the central base of Blackout. The birds were chirping and the rays of the sun hit the buildings that stood on the ground, entering through the windows to give much needed light at their interior.

On one building though, more specifically the Girls' Dormitory, was a certain room that the rays couldn't get into, as two big, dark blue curtains that stood behind a large window blocked their path. The inside of the room was pretty luxurious, though small, with expensive furniture decorating it. There was a small, knee high coffee table made of mahogany wood at the middle of the room and on top of it was a flower patterned tablecloth, decorated with a small candle at its center. At the end of the room, opposite of the large curtains, there was a small kitchen, complete with an oven, an electric cooktop and a fairly big fridge. A wardrobe was placed at the left of the large window, with a black uniform hanging outside of it, the name Nishizumi Miho written at the upper left with white letters. At the right of the large window and parallel to the wall was a single bed, where a girl no older than nineteen years old was sleeping soundly under the bed sheets.

Suddenly, a monotone sound feels the air, as the alarm clock starts ringing at exactly 7:30 am. At first, the girl makes no moves to close the alarm clock, but after a while, she starts fumbling the bedside table that's on her left with her right hand. Finding the origin of the monotone sound, the girl presses the top of it and the sound stops. Rising slowly, she rubs her eyes a few times, before getting out of bed. Stretching her arms and legs, she goes in front of the large curtains and moves them aside. Light seeps inside the relatively dark room, forcing the girl to shield her eyes, letting them adjust to the brightness, before lowering her right arm.

What a beautiful day, she thinks, gazing lazily outside, peering over the horizon where land and sky meets. Her mind starts drifting on the days before the Apocalypse, before all the earthquakes and chaos. Nostalgia filling her up, she starts reminiscing her days at the school carrier and how she would always think she was gonna be late for school. Her nostalgia soon turns to sadness as she realizes that these good old days, the days when she was just another innocent high school girl will never come back. And not just her, but her friends too. They all had to do some questionable things, they all had to spill blood and take lives...they all had to survive. Was the price they paid, the sacrifices they had to do, worth it? She felt as if this dilemma would haunt her for the rest of her life, eventually tearing her apart. But the only way is forward and lamenting for something that can't be changed isn't going to be helpful. As her mother used to say, the only way is to push forward, so she lightly hits her cheeks with her hands and after filling herself with determination, she nods mentally, _Enough lazing around, time to get ready._

Grabbing her uniform that hangs outside of the wardrobe, she slowly walks towards the bathroom, her steps being muffled by the carpeted floor.

Entering the bathroom and closing the door, she hangs the uniform at a hanger that is behind the door and undressing, she enters the shower. After showering herself, Miho dried her body and her hair with a towel, before changing to her uniform.

Exiting the bathroom, she goes to the small kitchen and opens the fridge, retrieving a small bottle of cold water. Opening it, she slowly drinks its contents and once it is empty, she crushes it in her hands and throws it in a nearby bin. After that, she makes her way to the door, stopping in front of a wall mirror that hangs on the wall next to the door.

 _Maybe I should let my hair grow a little longer._ _Though I highly doubt it would suit me._ Dismissing the thought of letting her hair grow longer, Miho exits her room and closes the door, before locking it. A square made of wood is bolted on the door that reads, _Room 24._

Making sure it is properly locked, she makes her way to the cafeteria, that is located on the ground floor. As she walks down the hallway, women around her age pass by, with most of them saluting her. Due to her reputation, she is respected and feared by many in the base. Reaching an intersection, she spots to her right Saori limping towards her, carrying a sleeping Mako, closely accompanied by Hana.

"Good morning girls," Miho waves at them.

"Good morning Miho," Hana waves back at Miho with a smile.

"Mi-porin, could...you help...me?" Saori manages to say, before crashing to the ground with a still asleep Mako on her back.

As Miho lifts Mako from Saori's back, Hana helps Saori to stand up.

"Good morning Mako," Miho says, with Mako responding with some unintelligible groaning, earning some giggles from her friends. "That reminds me, where is Yukari?" Miho asks her friends, seeing that no one has yet tried to surprise hug her.

"She told us she was going to the Garage Depot to oversee the mantainance of the tank," Saori says.

"Then it seems that all the team has assembled. Let's go get breakfast," Miho says and everyone nods, Hana's eyes looking livelier than usual for some reason.

* * *

Opening the door to the cafeteria, every person shifts her gaze on the four members of the Anglerfish team and instantly the large space gets filled with whispering voices.

"Let the rumors begin," Saori sighs loudly. As the girls make their way towards the counter, where breakfast is served, whispers can be heard like,

"I heard they managed to capture a whole base of bandits themselves."

"No way, I heard that Miho even had time to interrogate their leader while under fire."

"Ahh, Hana is so elegant, I want to be like her!"

"I heard that Miho and Yukari are actually in a relationship."

"What, no way?!"

"OK, this is getting pretty ridiculous," Saori grumbles.

"I heard these girls are so vicious in battle, that this is the reason their squad was nicknamed 'The Black Wolves'," a girl whispered to her friend as Miho and the others passed by their table. Hearing this, Mako stops in front of the table to tell something to the girls, but because of her sleepy face and the way she faced them, she looked like she was about to murder someone. Seeing this, the girls instantly get out of their seats and start running for the exit, one of them actually crying.

"What's their problem?" Mako wonders aloud, before following the girls that they are already at the counter.

After getting breakfast and finding a table to sit, they start eating their share of it.

"I have to say, the rumors about us are getting worse by the day," Saori complains.

"Indeed. And our last mission only served to fuel these rumors even more," Hana added.

"They think we are vicious animals fueled by pure bloodlust," Mako says with a sleepy face.

Miho can only smile awkwardly at the last statement, trying to understand how the rumors went from they being mercenaries to mindless killing machines.

As they finish their breakfast, with Hana now eating her third bowl of rice, the door to the cafeteria opens to reveal two boys, along with a girl that has curly hair enter the large room.

"Good morning Miss Nishizumi!" Yukari says while approaching the table, sitting between Miho and Saori.

"Good morning Yukari", Miho greets her back, as the other girls also do.

"Good morning girls," Reiji says, bowing slightly, before sitting opposite of the girls at the table.

"Morning," Tyler says simply, sitting next to Reiji. Almost instantly, a small crowd of girls gathers around the table, with the girls asking Tyler various questions, ranging from things about him, to love confessions and to go on a date with them.

Everyone sweatdrops to what they are seeing, only Reiji, Saori and Mako having different reactions.

"Does this happen every time?" Hana curiously asks.

"Yes. Every time we come to see Odysseus or Annabelle, he always attracts the attention of the girls," Reiji sighs heavily, having seen it happening too many times to care anymore.

Meanwhile, Saori tries to get the girls off of Tyler's back, being met with a mild success, as the crowd of girls starts to get smaller.

"Are you here to see Odysseus?" Miho asks Reiji.

"Yes, she was actually released from the hospital yesterday at night. We were actually on our way to her room and bumped on Yukari by coincidence. If you'd like, you can come with us to see her," Reiji informs Miho.

"Thanks, that would be great!" Miho responds back at Reiji.

"A question, but why Saori seems like she is keeping Tyler from being approached by other girls?" Yukari wonders aloud.

"It's because she likes him," Mako groans, still feeling like she hasn't slept for days.

"Wh-What are you talking about Mako!?" Saori almost screams, her face becoming bright red.

"You have been talking about him the whole week," she drones,which causes Saori to quickly walk over Mako and start pulling her cheeks.

"I told you to not mention it to anyone," she yells, causing everyone to burst in laughter.

"I think we should get going," Reiji suggests and Miho nods back at him in agreement.

* * *

After finishing their breakfast and Saori finally managed to calm down, Miho and the rest followed Reiji and Tyler at Odysseus' room, which was on the second floor.

Standing in front of the door, Miho notices a square made of wood bolted on the door, not unlike the one on her own door, that reads, Room 45.

Knocking lightly, a voice is heard saying something in English, though it is far too quiet to be heard.

"Oh, hey girls, what are you doing here?" Annabelle asks in a surprised tone, having opened the door.

"Good morning Odysseus. We learned from Reiji and Tyler that Odysseus got released from the hospital, so we came to see how she is," Miho says with a smile.

"Then please, come in. I'll go prepare some tea. Odysseus, the girls came to see you, so get your ass out of the bed and come greet them!" Annabelle yells while making her way to the kitchen to prepare some tea.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming, so stop yelling," Odysseus says with a grumpy face, not to happy that she has to get out of bed.

As the girls enter the room, followed by the boys, Miho notices that the room is an exact replica of her own, the only differences being the lower quality furniture and that there is a double bed, instead of a single one.

"Hey girls, how have you been?" Odysseus asks, sitting next to the small coffee table. The girls do the same and sit around the coffee table, while the boys go to the kitchen to help Annabelle with the tea.

"We have been fine. How is your eye now?" Hana says.

"Just fine. They actually had to remove it, but they made a fake one for me," she responds, pointing at her left eye.

"Wow, it looks like a real one," Saori admits, amazed by how real it seems.

"At least now I can be a pirate!" she says while holding an imaginary sword. "But silly things aside, what did I miss the week I was in the hospital?"

"Lets wait for Annabelle and the boys, so they can hear too what we found," Miho says in a serious tone, to show the severity of the conversation.

After Annabelle serves the tea and takes a place around the coffee table, along with the boys, Miho clears her throat, before speaking.

"It seems that the 'bandits' were actually members of an organization named Ressurected Imperial Japanese Army or R.I.J.A. for short. Their goal is too unite Japan and bring it back to its former glory that it had during WW2, before the attack on Pearl Harbor. They have enough power and assets to accomplish it, but what's more concerning, is that they have some of the most powerful school ships under their control, along with their territories. They have also abducted some of the Senshadou members and are using them as hostages, to make sure the rest won't do anything against them."

"Wait, wait, the school ships have territories?" Odysseus asks, clearly confused on what is going on.

"Yes. Basically, the school ships have become factions that have their own lands. My guess is that this was the only way to survive and ward off any potential bandits. As you can imagine, Kuromorimine, Pravda and Saunders have the largest territories, followed by St. Gloriana and Anzio. And all of them are occupying big parts of the new lands,"

"That are full of resources," Annabelle finishes Miho's sentence. "That's why they captured the school ships. That and the Senshadou clubs. They'll probably use the hostages to force the poor girls into fighting for them."

"And it gets even worse. At Pravda, there was an internal power struggle," Miho says grimly.

"You mean there was a coup d'etat?" Odysseus says with both amazement and fear at the same time.

"Something like that. Basically, three girls that support R.I.J.A. and their plan, managed to somehow bypass both Nonna and Klara and take hostage Katyusha. They gave her to R.I.J.A., along with a bunch of tanks and some other things."

"And because they hold Katyusha's life at their fingertips, everyone must obey them," Reiji says.

"I just hope that Nonna and Klara will be fine," Hana said worriedly.

"You also said that they had taken hostages from other schools, do you know who these are?"

"Yes. From Pravda, Katyusha. From Kuromorimine...my sister, Maho. From Saunders Naomi. From Anzio, Anchovy and Carpacio. And lastly, from St. Gloriana, Assam and Orange Pekoe. By taking these people, they can manipulate the overall commanders of the school ships to do whatever R.I.J.A. wants."

"But this doesn't make sense, why would they want to take Maho and Anchovy as hostages? They are the overall commanders of their respective schools after all," Annabelle says.

"You know how Erika feels about Mako. She'll burn the entire school ship, if it means Maho stays alive and safe. Well, maybe not burn the school ship, but you get what I mean. As for Anchovy, the girls of Anzio are very loyal to her, so with her life on the line, no one will act rashly," Odysseus says at Annabelle.

"We have been hired by the JSDF to free the hostages, free the school ships and take down their main base."

"Do we even know where the hostages are?" Odysseus inquires.

"Yes, the JSDF has provided us with their location. We merely need to infiltrate these locations and free the hostages." Miho responds back at her.

"Great. Also...I'm not sure if I should ask this, but...you didn't mentioned your school ship, Ooarai." she says hesitantly.

"Our school ship...we found it beached on a shore. There were signs of fighting, along with tank wrecks and charred bodies," Miho says with a severe look.

"So...you mean that..." Tyler trails off, not finishing his sentence.

"No. If there was really a fight, they're going to be more bodies and wrecks from what we found," Mako says.

"Also, when we boarded our carrier, it was empty. Not a single soul was present," Hana says with a sad and at the same time happy tone, her last sentence causing Mako to shiver unconsciously.

"What if they left?" Annabelle suggests.

"We thought about it, but decided that Anzu would never do something so uncertain. She might be manipulative and like taking risks, but she only takes them when she can control them or there isn't any other choice," Saori answers back. "At least that's what Miho thinks."

" So that means that they were either captured or forced to escape," Tyler suggests and every member of the Anglerfish team nods in agreement.

"Well, we will find out sooner or later. Though I must say, there sure are many school ships that are still missing. Bomple, Maple, BC Freedom...what happened to them?" Odysseus asks rhetorically.

A sudden knocking is heard coming from the door. Annabelle gets up from where she is sitting and goes to open the door.

"Good morning, how could I help you?" she says in a polite tone, noticing a female guard of the Dormitory standing in front of the door.

"I was sent to inform Nishizumi Miho that she is needed at the Director's office immediately," she informs Annabelle.

"I'll inform her on your behalf," Annabelle says elegantly, snapping a professional salute. The guard returns the salute, before walking away to resume patrolling the hallways.

Closing the door, she walks back at the girls. "It seems the Director is looking for you Miho," Annabelle says with a serious voice.

"Eh? Is it something serious?" Miho asks in a surprised tone.

"Yes."

"But how they tracked her?" Saori asks.

"From the security cameras in the hallways," Odysseus says.

"They could have used the loud speakers," Mako says in a sleepy voice.

"Whatever the case, I have to go. If you'll excuse me then," Miho says, before standing up and making her way quickly to the door, exiting the room.

"Any idea what the Director, of all people would want with her?" Tyler asks. Every member of the Anglerfish team shake their heads, they too being confused and surprised at the Director's request.

* * *

 **Administrative building**

 **Floor 4**

Walking through the narrow hallway painted in a dull olive green, her footsteps echoing through it, Miho is trying to think what the Director would want with her. Surely she and the girls had an impressive record and reputation inside the base, but there were far more elite squads that surpassed them both in skill and fame.

 _Maybe it's something that has to do with the information we uncovered or the school ships themselves. Or even...my sister_ , she thought, dreading the last possibility. Quickly approaching two big, wooden doors that are guarded by two soldiers, she stops in front of them and salutes them. Returning the salute, they open the two wooden doors to reveal a luxurious office behind them. Entering the office, the soldiers close the doors.

Miho snaps her most professional salute at the man that sits behind a large mahogany office desk. He seems to be at least 50 years old, his brown eyes reading a document he holds with his left hand, while brushing his thick, gray mustache with his right hand. Noticing Miho, he waves down his hand, so she lowers her salute.

"At ease commander," he says in his deep voice and so Miho relaxes her stature a bit.

"I was informed you requested for me Director," Miho says.

"Indeed. You know about the situation in Pravda, correct?" he inquires.

"Yes, sir," Miho answers, never breaking eye contact with him.

"Miho, Katyusha will be executed in two days time by these wretches that overthrew Katyusha from the position of overall commander," a calm voice says, though traces of anger and wrath can be found mixed in.

Hearing this familiar voice, Miho widens her eyes in response and instantly looks on her right to find a lone girl gazing at her. She was a tall, elegant girl with long, straight black hair and a pair of light blue eyes. Her face seemed to betray no emotions whatsoever, yet Miho knew the hidden passion and admiration she had for Pravda's overall commander.

"Nonna!" Miho says loudly in a cheerful voice.

"Hello Miho. It has been two long years full of surprises it seems," Nonna responds back with her trademarked stoic expression and calm voice.

"Wait, what you told just now about Katyusha is true?" Miho asks with a dreadful voice.

"I'm afraid it is Miho. Two days ago, I received a letter from the JSDF that was addressed to Katyusha, telling her that a PMC known as Blackout had been hired to free the school ships from their current struggle. I also learned that same day of Katyusha's planned execution, which will be handled specifically by the three girls that overthrew her from her position."

"So,you came here to inform Blackout of this turn of events," Miho guesses.

"That would be true,"Nonna nods in agreement.

"The problem is, we only have one of the special forces squads available right now, so we would have to choose one of the two locations the hostages are being held. This would mean that the hostages on the non-attacked location run the risk of getting transported to another location or worse," the Director says.

"However, if you are to help with the infiltration then-" The two big, wooden doors swing open and a certain blonde idiot enters yelling, "We are in!" while the guards try unsuccessfully to pin her down on the ground.

Four girls walk inside the office, their eyes full of determination and conviction. Seeing the girls, Miho turns to face the Director, a smile forming on her face.

"I guess this goes for you as well?" the Director asks the four girls standing behind Miho.

"Although she is a pain in the butt sometimes..." Saori says first.

"...and a loud mouth..." Yukari adds.

"...and not very well-mannered..." Hana says.

"...and short," Mako says bluntly.

"She is our friend and we never abandon friends in need. So count us in!" Miho says with determination brimming in her eyes.

"Then the Anglerfish team and... I guess the Antelope team will be part of phase one of Operation Downfall. You will be debriefed about it tomorrow. You are dismissed," The Director says, with all the girls, except for Odysseus and Nonna, saluting him.

A small unnoticeable smile forms in Nonna's face, hope being once again within her reach.

* * *

 **A/N: Here is the rewritten chapter 4. Took less time time than expected.** **Anyway, a** **s always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and** **there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**


	5. Chapter 5: Operation Silver Arrow

**The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 5: Operation Silver Arrow**

* * *

 **Sunday**

 **22nd of May 2 Y.A.**

 **Blackout central base**

 **Conference room 2A**

 **11:58 am**

"Why do you think they called us here?"

"Most likely to inform us for the next operation."

"It is most likely connected to what we have uncovered about the R.I.J.A. . That's the only explanation for the number of personnel that has been called today...umm, Saori, why are you grumpy?"

Inside the conference room sit the Anglerfish and Antelope team, along with other tank crew squads, all waiting to be briefed on the upcoming mission. Some of the squads are standing and casually converse about their days or the upcoming operation, while others are already seated. Miho and her friends are sitting in the front row of the seats the conference room has, since they arrived earlier than everyone.

"I can't understand what they find on him that makes them fall head over heels for him," Saori says grumpily as she eyes the small crowd of girls that are around Tyler in the back rows, with Odysseus starting to get annoyed by them, since the only thing she can see are breasts all around her.

"Indeed, I wonder what. Why don't you tell us Saori?" Mako says sarcastically in a deadpan tone.

"Wh-what do you mean Mako?! H-How should I know?!" she stutters back, having been caught off guard by Mako's comment.

"Someone is in love," Hana teases, before giggling.

"St-Stop it! It's not like that!" she cries, her cheeks being as red as heated iron.

"It's okay Saori, we will support you whatever your decision!" Yukari says in a cheerful tone.

"This isn't helping at all Yukari!" Saori says through her hands, having buried her face in them from the sheer embarrassment she is feeling. Miho can only giggle at her friends' behavior.

Odysseus on the other hand is irritated, since she is sitting in the last row of seats, thanks to a sleepy Annabelle and a Tyler that was stopped by a girl every few seconds to be asked out on a date, how was his day or if he wanted to transfer on another squad, which he politely declined every time. Couple it with the small crowd of girls all around her, she is really reaching her limit.

"Hey Annabelle, will you help me over here?" she grumbles, looking at her redhead friend.

"I can't now," she murmurs, having laid her head on Odysseus lap and sleeping.

"Of course you can't, sleepyhead. Then I'll enact Plan G!" she says excitedly with a sly smile.

"Plan G?" Reiji and Tyler wonder aloud, not liking their commander's expression. Finding the girl with the biggest breasts, Odysseus grabs and squeezes them. The girl screams, causing everyone to look at her direction.

"Wh-What do y-you think you are doing?!" she stutters, her face red from embarrassment.

"Hmm, they are definitely fluffy, but there is also a certain firmness," she says like some sort of perverted anime protagonist who is expert on such a subject. All the girls start backing away from the blonde, giving her looks of disgust and some of them even covering their chest area with their arms. The boys on the other hand look more than excited for some odd reason.

"You can't remain idle for a moment, can you Odysseus?" Annabelle deadpans, hitting lightly Odysseus with a karate chop on her head, causing everyone to start laughing. "Do you have to mess with everyone?"

"They wouldn't go away!" she cries like a child.

"Did you even ask them?" Reiji asks.

"I tried, but one of them hissed at me!"

"Their commander is really weird," Saori comments, having witnessed the whole situation.

"She might be attracted to females," Mako blurts out.

"Mako, you can't judge people so quickly!" Saori scolds Mako.

"But she is always with Annabelle. Could they be a couple?" Hana wonders, blushing a bit.

"I think it's too early to come to any conclusions girls," Miho giggles awkwardly.

Suddenly a man enters the conference room and makes his way up to the stage that is a few meters in front of the rows of seats. He seems to be around his late fifties, has black hair and is at least 180 cm tall. He is wearing a green Blackout uniform, as opposed to the black one every personnel are required to wear. Eyeing the figure, everyone stops talking at once and sit on the seats the conference room has. The lights of the room dim and a projector starts projecting images on the wall besides the man.

"Okay everyone, listen well to what I have to say because time is running short and I don't want to repeat what I'm about to tell you!" he says loudly so as to be heard from everyone.

"For anyone that is new, my name is Shimanuki Teruo. I'm also known as the Coordinator, because I have to babysit your asses when you are out on the battlefield, making sure you don't stick your rifles in your butts," the man says and the whole conference room erupts in laughter.

"Fisrt of all, we got hired by the JSDF, or what remains of it, to launch a massive offensive against the Resurrected Imperial Japanese Army or R.I.J.A. for short, that have the school ships under their control. The offensive, named Operation Downfall, will be launched in three phases," he says and the projector changes to an image that shows two different places.

"Phase 1 will be the infiltration of the bases shown in the image, where some girls from the carriers are held prisoners. After securing and extracting them, we will bomb the bases, which is tied with Phase 2." The projector shows an image of the new Japan, with a lot of red Xs marking the places where R.I.J.A. has bases, as well as the school ships.

"Phase 2 will be the direct assault on the school ships, as well as the bases R.I.J.A. has all over Japan. It will begin after securing the prisoners in hopes that the school ships will retaliate against them. You have permission to only shoot anyone affiliated with them; the last thing I want to see are dead highschool girls. I am sure your consciousness agrees with me too."

"Phase 3 will be a direct assault on their stronghold. We haven't discern its location yet, but once we find it, we are to capture it." The projector shows now a blank image.

"Every squad will be briefed based on the phase they will be participating. For the first phase, I want the Anglerfish and the Antelope teams to remain. The rest of you are dismissed."

"Yes sir!" Everyone stands up and salutes, before exiting the room. Silence feels the air, as only the two tank crews remain.

"So, I have heard you volunteered for this phase," Teruo says in his booming voice.

"Yes sir. We were informed by the Director that due to the shortage of necessary personnel, the infiltrations couldn't commence at the same time, so we volunteered," Miho says, standing at attention.

"On the other hand, we were dragged in this by our commander's idiocy," Tyler grumbles silently, not too happy about his current position.

"You know she did it because she wants to help, right?" Reiji whispers back.

"It's because two of the girls are our friends that I volunteered us," Odysseus says.

"Whatever you say, now it's too late to back off anyway," Tyler sighs.

"Too eager to save your friends, huh? Just make sure you don't die out there," he says, before the projector changes to the image that was shown first.

"Let us resume with your briefing. You will be infiltrating the bases under the cover of darkness. Both teams will be accompanied by two special forces soldiers each. Your transport will be a Blackhawk transport helicopter. After securing the HVTs, you will contact the the helicopter for extraction. If your cover gets blown before you have secured the targets, retreat immediately. If it gets blown after securing them, you can request support fire from the helicopter. The first location is known as the Plains of Silence and the second as the Mountain of Guilt. You choose were you deploy, since we don't know which prisoners are held where. Also, if you see these three ladies," the projector changes the image to one that has three girls in it. The first has red short hair, blue eyes and wears glasses, the second has long blonde hair and green eyes and the third has long brown hair tied in a ponytail and brown eyes, "Capture them. The JSDF will give you enough money to live without a care for your next three lives. Or kill them, it's up to you if they live or die. That's all for now, you have about one and a half days before deploying. Time is of the essence, we cannot let the execution happen. You are dismissed."

"Yes sir!", everyone, except for Odysseus, salutes the man, before exiting the conference room.

"So, in which place will you go?" Odysseus asks Miho.

"Uhm...we don't know in which location are who, so maybe we will go at the Plains of Silence?" Miho says reluctantly, not sure which location she should choose to rescue her sister.

"Great, then we will take the mountain! See you in one and a half days, we have preparations too do!" she exclaims running towards the cafeteria.

"Odysseus, get back here right now, you are going to help with the preparations too!" Annabelle yells, running behind the blonde.

"This girl never learns. Excuse us for now, we shall meet again in one and half days," Reiji bows slightly.

"Y-You don't need to bow!" Miho says flustered, flailing her hands a bit.

* * *

 **Mountain of Guilt**

 **R.I.J.A. Base**

 **4th floor**

 **Prisoners' Cell**

Inside the cell are six figures, four girls and two men. While the girls wear school uniforms, the men wear WW2 military uniforms.

"This is horrible. Are we really fighting for a future like this?" one of the men says, eyeing the bodies of the girls, which are full of bruises.

"They sure got rough with them, bastards," the man that wear glasses says angrily, checking the bandages of one of the girls.

"Did they do anything else to them?" the one without glasses asks, his voice quivering a little.

"Don't worry, I checked all the girls and they are fine," the man with the glasses says, which causes the other man to sigh in relief. Having checked the bandages and seeing they are fine, the man goes to a girl with short blonde hair and a pair of light blue eyes. She is about 127 cm tall and looks like a small child.

"Do they abduct children now, the man with the glasses murmurs as he goes to check her bandages.

"Katyusha is not a child; she is above all of you," the girl says with a tired voice, barely opening her eyelids.

"Oh, so you are Miss Katyusha of the Pravda Girls High School. Nice to meet you," he says, starting to check Katyusha's bandages.

"Don't mock me. I know you are with these guys, you probably have a plan to do something to me."

"Indeed I have and that is to see if your wounds are healing."

"You are lying. I am sure Nonna and Klara will come to save me and then they'll make you pay."

"I can assure you that I am not trying to do anything malicious to you. Only to check your wounds and nurse you back in full health."

"So, the gnome is still kicking I see," a female voice says and both men that are checking the girls turn to look at the door of the cell. A girl with short red hair and blue eyes stand there, watching Katyusha's state with a sly smile. The man says nothing and goes back at wrapping new bandages on Katyusha's wounds, since the old ones needed to be replaced. The girl's expression changes at an irritated one, since she is ignored by everyone inside the room. Walking quickly to Katyusha, she pins Katyusha's left hand in the ground with her foot, Katyusha screaming from the pain she feels. "In two days you die little wretch, I hope you are as delighted as I am," the redhead grins. The man instantly gets up and punches the redhead, breaking her nose and causing her to fall to the ground.

"I'd suggest you refrain from injuring my patients," the man in glasses says, looking down at the redhead who clasps her hands on her bleeding nose. Getting up, she quickly runs out of the room, a thin trail of blood marking her route.

"I think you went a bit overboard," the other man says casually, having checked and replaced the bandages of the second girl. "All done here."

"I won't let her torture these girls anymore. They have suffered enough," he says as he checks Katyusha's left hand. "I think we should get the girls out of here."

"And how will we do this?" the other man asks in disbelief.

"I'm two days, most of the base's forces will go to the central base. It will be the perfect opportunity to smuggle them out of the base."

"I don't know, it's too risky," the man says contemplating on what to do. "Fine, I'll help you with it. I just hope you know what you are doing.

" Thank you," the man with the glasses bows a little to the other man.

* * *

 **Tuesday**

 **24th of May 2 Y.A.**

 **En route to Mountain of Guilt**

 **Phase 1 of Operation Downfall**

 **Operation Silver Arrow**

 **5 minutes till drop point**

 **00:30 am**

Thunder and lightnings filled the sky as the rain hit mercilessly the fuselage of the Blackhawk helicopter, the sound of its spinning rotor blades getting masked by the ongoing storm.

Inside the cabin sit six people, their only source of light a small red light in the cockpit. It has been approximately 2 hours since departure from the base and their trip so far had been uneventful.

Tyler and Reiji are sleeping, Annabelle is gazing out of the small windows the cabin has, looking at the lightnings that fall in the distance and Odysseus is checking her weapon.

"It seems you are pretty experienced with handling weapons," a young woman, that sits opposite of Odysseus, says. Eyeing her, Odysseus only now notices the contrast her platinum dyed hair that are tied in a long ponytail and her black eyes have. She wears a short-sleeved black shirt and over it a black bulletproof vest and military grade black pants.

"Your name's Luminous, right? Why are you using an alias? " Odysseus asks, returning on checking her weapon and dodging the question she was asked.

"I have my reasons. When you are a mercenary that has traveled the world, you tend to make a couple of enemies," she answers, still looking at Odysseus. "You aren't from Japan, are you?"

"Greece. You?"

"Germany. The guy that sits next to me is from good ol' U.S.A.," she answers, pointing to her left. The man has grey hair and brown eyes and is 180cm tall. He also wears a short-sleeved black shirt and a bulletproof vest, though his vest is bigger and thicker than Luminous's. The man says nothing, checking his gear to make sure everything's fine.

"Come on Theodore, at least say a hi or something," Luminous nudges Theodore.

"Name's Theodore. Just do what I and Lumi say to you and you'll make it back alive," he smirks, noticing Luminous' angry pout.

"I've told you never to call me that!" Luminous punches Theodore to his right arm.

 _"One minute till the drop point!"_ the pilot says through the comms. Tyler and Reiji wake up from their sleep, checking their gear and Annabelle stops gazing outside, grabbing her weapon that stands between her legs, the barrel pointing upwards.

 _"Thirty seconds to touchdown!"_ the pilot says.

"Safeties off!" Luminous says and the sound off safeties clicking fills the cabin. The helicopter shakes a bit, indicating the helicopter has landed.

"Listen well kids, you are not to fire your weapons, unless me or Luminous say to, you got that?" Theodore says, opening the cabin's door. He and Luminous exit first and start scanning their surroundings with their weapons. Finding no hostiles, they signal the rest to come out.

"We will be waiting for you 2 clicks to the west, call us when your excursion is over!" the co-pilot yells from the cabin's door, as the helicopter rises in the air.

"It would be nice if it was an excursion!" Luminous says through the comms, waving at the pilots.

As the helicopter starts flying to the west, the infiltration team enters the forest that is next to the base, to take shelter from the rain.

"All right, everyone listen closely. We are about a kilometer away from the base. We will go through this forest and should be able to find ourselves next to the base. The HVTs are in a cell at the fourth floor of the base, we secure them and then call the helicopter. Also, when we enter the base, I'll turn on this little device here and we will have about 30 minutes before our jets bomb the base out of existence," he says, lifting a black rectangular device that is small enough to fit on his palm. Everyone nods, so the two spec ops start leading the way through the forest.

* * *

"Isn't this a bit too early?"

"The quicker we are done with it, the quicker we will be back at the school ship."

"But we agreed that the execution would happen in the morning, not in the middle of the night."

"Whatever, let's just get over with it."

"At least point the gun at her head, not her chest."

"It's not like she'll be able to survive either way. Anyway...dasvidaniya Katyusha."

 ** _Crack_**

* * *

"Alright, we will infiltrate from this side, seems it has the least amount of hostiles."

"Won't they notice that a whole checkpoint has gone dark?"

At the edge of the forest stand six figures, weapons raised and aimed, ready to fire. At a distance of fifty meters stands the base's side entrance. It has a steel gate that is opened, a guard room and some sandbags around it. Six armed soldiers guard the entrance from intruders, most standing out despite the heavy rain.

"Don't worry about it. By the time they notice, their whole base will be a flaming wreck," Theodore says at Luminous. Raising his silenced gun, he aims at the head of one of the soldiers.

"Pick a target and wait for me to fire," he says and everyone places their sights on an enemy soldier. Waiting for the perfect moment, a lightning falls nearby and when it thunders, he pulls the trigger. A muffled puff is heard, followed by five other muffled puffs. The soldiers fall down on the muddy road, the storm covering any noises.

"Okay, let's get the bodies out of sight and move up," Luminous says, already walking towards the now devoid of any hostiles entrance, checking with her gun the surrounding area.

"You heard her kids, now move it," Theodore says and exiting the forest, he dashes for the entrance, his steps splashing rain water from the puddles the ground has.

"Hey, we are not kids! We are adults you know!" Odysseus grumbles.

"To my eyes, you are still little kids," Theodore smirks a little.

Frowning but not saying anything else, she and her team follows closely and once they reach the entrance, they help to hide the bodies in the surrounding vegetation, before continuing inside the base.

Reaching their target building with relative ease, Luminous spots a small service door. Opening it, she peeks inside and finding no one, she beckons everyone to go inside, before entering herself, closing and locking the door.

"Thank God, no more rain!" Odysseus sighs in relief, being wet from top to bottom.

"I'm soaking wet; I really hope I don't catch a cold," Annabelle complains, drying her hair from the water they have collected.

"You can keep your complaining for after the mission. Lumi, I'm taking the boys and we will make our way towards the commander's office, see if we can find any information about their main base." Activating the small black cube, he puts it on one of the pockets the vest has. "We only have thirty minutes, so let's split up."

Ok, I'll take the girls and go secure our HVTs. And don't call me Lumi," Lumi grumbles.

Theodore, Tyler and Reiji go towards the left, while Luminous, Annabelle and Odysseus go to the right. When the teams dissappear from view, six green led lights appear for a moment, before vanishing into thin air.

* * *

Trudging through the narrow corridors, Luminous leads the girls to where she believes the HVTs are, her weapon raised to her shoulder in case an enemy appears.

"So, you think we will find Orange Pekoe and Assam here?" Odysseus asks Annabelle.

"I hope we will," Annabelle answers back, before adding, "Please don't fight with Assam if she is here."

"I'll try not too, though she is the one that always starts the arguments."

"Because of what you did and you are damn lucky you didn't get banned from participating in Senshadou forever," Annabelle says to Odysseus with a serious face.

"Not that it matters anymore," Odysseus says with a cheeky grin.

"Girls, stop," Luminous whispers, signaling them to stay put.

They are in an intersection, with a hallway meeting the hallway they are now vertically. Peeking from one of the corners, she spots at the end of the hallway a steel door that has two soldiers in front of it, presumably guards. Thankfully, the corridor lacks any proper lighting, with only a small light bulb on top of where the guards are,restricting their vision on how far they can see.

"Girls, come here," she beckons at Odysseus and Annabelle. "You see the guards? One of you take aim at the man on the right and await my signal."

Dashing to the other corner of the hallway, Luminous raises her weapon and aims at the guard on the left.

Steadying her aim, she pulls the trigger and a muffled puff echoes through the hallways. A split second later, another muffled puff is heard. The two guards fall down to the floor, their heads spewing blood from a bullet hole in their forehead. Keeping her weapon raised, Luminous quickly makes it in front of the door.

"Drag them inside," she points at the two bodies. Trying to open the door, she finds it locked, so she searches the bodies for keys, thankfully finding one.

Unlocking the door, she opens it slowly and peers inside. Noticing three girls lying on the ground, she quickly enters, followed by the girls that are dragging the dead guards with them. Luminous closes the door, while Annabelle and Odysseus start checking the girls.

"Pekoe, are you alright?" Annabelle says quickly and putting her weapon on the floor, she raises Orange Pekoe slightly from the ground.

"A-Annabelle? Is that...you?" Orange Pekoe mutters, her voice barely audible.

"We are here to rescue you," Annabelle says softly, giving her a hug.

"Really? Wh-What about Assam?"

"Miho and her team are going to rescue them as we speak."

"Miho? S-So they are all alive."

Orange Pekoe says nothing more, silently crying in Annabelle's shoulder, glad that her suffering has ended.

"Assam's not here. Only Carpaccio and Naomi," Odysseus says with slight anger, eyeing the bruises and bandages on the girls' bodies.

"Some girls...took Katyusha somewhere," Orange Pekoe says worryingly.

"Theodore, come in," Luminous says quickly, pressing her earpiece in her right ear.

* * *

"What's up?" Theodore answers, being outside of the commander's office with Reiji and Tyler.

 _"One of the girls here said that someone took Katyusha somewhere. They might be speeding up the execution,"_ Luminous says quickly.

"Do they know where she has been taken?"

 _"No."_

"Damn. Okay, we'll search the commander's office, maybe we will find where she is."

 _"Okay, keep me posted if you find anything,"_ Luminous says, terminating the transmission.

"Okay, get ready to enter," Theodore tells the boys, who stand across him. Kicking the door open, he enters with his gun raised and a bullet passes by his head, the gun report indicating a revolver was just fired.

"Don't fire, friendly, friendly!" he quickly and clearly says, eyeing the attacker.

"Wh-Who are you that stand in front of Great Katyusha?!" she says in a quivering voice, aiming a revolver on Theodore's head with trembling hands.

"We were informed by Nonna about an execution concerning you. We are with a PMC that was hired to rescue you," Tyler says slowly. Katyusha lowers a bit the revolver, but still keeps it aimed at Theodore, not fully convinced they speak the truth.

"We have no time for this. Tyler, check that opened door in the wall. Reiji, check the desk for any important documents," Theodore orders.

While Tyler goes to check the opened door that is in the wall behind the commander's desk and Reiji checks the desk for anything of value, Theodore kneels in front of Katyusha,extending his left arm. "Do you mind if you hand me the revolver?"

"F-Fine," Katyusha reluctantly hands him the gun.

"The targets from Pravda are dead," Tyler says to Theodore, exiting the room that is next to the commander's office.

"Did you do it?" Theodore asks Katyusha, still kneeling in front of her.

"No, they killed each other," Katyusha says, having calmed down somewhat. "No, a-actually, I killed one of them," she averts her gaze a little, looking down on the ground.

Standing up, Theodore presses his earpiece on his right hand to speak to Luminous.

"Luminous, we have secured Katyusha," he says, looking down at the short blonde girl that looks more like a child.

 _"And the girls we are to capture?"_

"Dead. They killed each other it seems."

* * *

"Did you find any information about their main base?"

 _"We are looking through some documents now."_

"Okay. See what you can find and meet us on our location. We have about 15 minutes before the jets are here," Luminous says, before pressing her earpiece once to cut the transmission.

"Now, mind telling us who you are?" she asks, eyeing two men that are on their knees in front of her. Odysseus and Annabelle are behind them, aiming their guns on their heads.

"We told you, both of us are doctors and we were nursing the wounds of the girls," a man that wears glasses says.

"We were going to smuggle the girls out of the base, but it seems you came here first," a young man next to the one with glasses says.

"And why should we believe you? How do we know you aren't bullshiting us right now?" Odysseus swears, pressing the barrel of her gun on the head of the young man.

"They...are saying the truth..." Orange Peace raises her voice as much as she can so as to be heard, sitting up on the floor, having found enough strength to do so.

"Fine, let them be," Luminous says and the girls lower their firearms, though they keep them in their hands. "Since you wanted to get them out of the base, can you help us with it? We will have a helicopter come and extract us from here."

"Is there a possibility to come with you? We know it might sound suspicious, but we have been thinking of deserting for quite some time," the man in glasses says.

"And atone for anything malicious we may have done," the young man adds.

Before Luminous can respond, the alarm of the base starts blaring.

"What is going on?" Annabelle asks urgently, as her body starts tensing up.

"Theodore, what's going on?" Luminous asks quickly through comms, opening the door of the cell slightly and peeking out on the hallway.

 _"We have been compromised! Lower floors are crawling with hostiles, we will meet you at the rooftop!"_ Theodore yells through the sound of gunfire and bullets wheezing past him.

"Copy that!" she says, firing her weapon at some approaching hostiles. "Listen up! Me and Odysseus will cover you, while you carry the girls!"

"Why, what's going on!?" Odysseus yells, sticking to the wall next to the steel door.

"We have been compromised! We will meet the boys on the rooftop for extraction!" Luminous says loudly, exiting the cell and laying suppressive fire. Odysseus, follows closely behind, she too laying suppressive fire. The two men and Annabelle pick a girl each and start following the others.

* * *

Reaching the rooftop, Theodore and the rest aim their weapons at the stairs that lead where they are, Katyusha taking cover behind them. By now the rain has stop, the starry sky bathing the whole base with a soft white light.

"They are on the rooftop!" They hear some voices yells and soon enough, enemies start going up the stairs, only to get riddled with bullets.

"There is no end to these guys, how many are they!?" Tyler yells, ejecting his empty magazine and throwing it downstairs, hitting a soldier on his face.

"It is a base after all, you can't expect to only have 20 or 30 people," Reiji says calmly, spraying bullets all over the place to deter anyone from advancing.

Suddenly, the flow of enemy soldiers stops. A few tense moments pass, before Luminous, along with the girls and the two men appear.

"Friendlies!" she yells as she goes up the stairs.

"And the guys carrying the HVTs?" Theodore asks, keeping his gun aimed on them.

"Same. Have you called the helicopter?" she asks. When all of them are on the rooftop, Theodore closes and jams the door that leads on the rooftop.

"Yes, it should be here at any moment."

Small lights can be seen racing between the buildings of the base, presumably flashlights, since it is still the middle of the night.

"This is going to be a problem," Odysseus blurts out, as the lights all converge on the building they are.

"Hey do you hear it?" Annabelle says, hearing a very faint noise.

"Helicopter's here, let's get going!" Theodore says to everyone, as the sound of rotating blades becomes louder and louder.

As the helicopter lands on the rooftop, Theodore slides open the cabin's door. Suddenly, the door that leads to the rooftop starts getting kicked, in a bid to open. Not thinking twice, the young man that was carrying Naomi, puts her on the helicopter and goes to the door, using all of his strength to keep it closed.

"What do you think you are doing!?" Theodore yells at the man.

"I am buying you some time to escape!" he shouts back, becoming increasingly difficult to keep the door closed. The man with the glasses runs to the young man, helping him to keep it from opening.

"Go with them young man!" he shouts.

"What about you?!"

"I am too old for this new world. I have lived my life with a lot of regrets, I want to do something that I'll be proud of for once."

Nodding in understanding, the young man starts running towards the helicopter, which is slowly gaining height.

"Live your life to the fullest young man!" the old man yells. Taking a step back, the door to the rooftop opens and several soldiers with WW2 uniforms swarm out of it. The old man gets impaled by at least five bayonets, vomiting huge amounts of blood.

"This old body may be crumbling, but my soul will never yield!" he roars at his final moments, his eyes filled with determination and his body surging up with power. Grabbing the weapons of several soldiers, the old man takes a step off the edge of the rooftop, dragging several soldiers to their demises.

Luminous, being on the edge of the cabin, notices the young man who is running towards the helicopter, which now hovers about a meter away from the rooftop, so she extends her arm for him.

"Jump!" she yells at him and the man puts all of his strength on his legs, jumping off the roof and grabbing Luminous' hand. Bullets start striking the fuselage of the helicopter, which banks right and starts moving away from the building. Grunting and using all of her strength, Luminous manages to pull up the young man, with Theodore closing the cabin's door.

"Hey, you alright?" Luminous pants, feeling quite exhausted from lifting a 70kg body. The man doesn't respond, lying limply on the ground, his back full of bullet holes.

"I'm sorry," Theodore says to Luminous.

"It's okay, i have seen death too many times for me to get affected by something like this." Turning the body so it's facing upwards, she crosses its arms and closes its eyes, before saying a prayer in German.

As the helicopter gets further from the base, four huge fireballs consume the base, setting everything that isn't blown to bits on fire.

"What was that?" Annabelle asks in awe, gazing on the chaotic, yet majestic sight of the burning base.

"Fuel-air bombs. Quite destructive," Odysseus answers quietly, so that only Annabelle hears her. Katyusha slowly makes her way to the fallen man, a sad expression on her face.

"Though I never learned their names, I shall pay my respects to them by solidifying their existence in this world. Pravda will not forget their actions and valiant sacrifices to make sure we would come out of this endeavor unharmed," she says slowly and salutes the body of the young man, tears forming in her eyes.

* * *

 **A/N:Rewritten at last! More drama than the original, that's for sure.** **A** **nyway, a** **s always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and** **there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**


	6. Chapter 6: Reunion

**The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 6: Reunion**

* * *

 **Tuesday**

 **24th of May 2 Y.A.**

 **2:44 am**

 **Plains of Silence**

 **2 km away from the enemy base**

Opening her eyes slowly, Miho finds herself lying on a hard, cold surface, looking at the night sky with her blurry vision. Rubbing her eyes gently and blinking a few times, she manages to clear her vision, so she decides to sit up. Looking all around her, she sees nothing but grassy ground, littered with chunks of twisted, burning metal, their lights illuminating her dark surroundings, with the light of the starry sky absent, thanks to the thick clouds that hide them.

Looking down on her body, she sees that her bulletproof vest and her uniform under it have been cut horizontally, exposing a sliver of her abdomen's skin. _The vest is ruined,_ she thinks and so she takes it off and throws it away. Her whole body aches and her left arm feels very stingy. Taking a look at it, she finds a shallow cut that goes from the side of her upper arm till her elbow, though the wound doesn't appear to be bleeding. Checking the rest of her body, she only finds some scratches and small bruises, though she starts wondering how she got these wounds and why was she lying on the ground when she woke up. Thankfully her sheathed knife is still strapped on her left thigh, but the holster strapped on her right thigh is empty, her Glock-7, and for that matter her M16 assault rifle, missing.

"Well, sitting here won't give me any answers," she mutters to herself, before standing up. Almost immediately her head starts pounding, perhaps from standing up too fast, so she reflexively grabs it with her right hand, which causes her head to pound even harder.

"Argh, this must be the worst headache I ever had," she groans as she falls to the ground on her butt. "Did I hit my head somewhere?" she wonders aloud. Taking a few deep breaths and waiting for the pounding to lessen, she stands up again, albeit more slowly this time. Looking all around her once again, she spots the wreckage of a Blackhawk helicopter, its tail section missing completely, probably blown off by something. The cabin section seems to be relatively intact, with its door being slightly open.

"D-Did we get downed?" Miho asks herself aloud. She tries to remember what happened, but her brain refuses to cooperate, returning fuzzy memories and nothing else. Putting the question of what happened aside for the time being, she decides to walk to the crashed helicopter, despite the constant complaints of her aching body and pounding head.

"My head is killing me," she complains, feeling quite dizzy. "I hope the girls are alright." Reaching the helicopter, her feet give in for a moment, so she has to support her body on the cabin's door, which proves to be a bit too much for it as the door snaps out of its place. Miho stumbles backwards and lets the door fall in front of her, hitting the ground with an audible thud and raising some dust in the air. Miho manages to keep her balance and remain upright, and when she looks inside the cabin, her facial expression changes from a neutral one, to one of relief and then shock.

On one side of the cabin sit her friends, unmoving but still breathing, a clear indication they are unconscious. On the other side lays a man, around 30 years old, with one of the main rotor blades stuck horizontaly halfway through his torso and his left arm cut in half. The seat in which he lies and the floor of the cabin below him are full of blood, causing Miho to avert her gaze from the dead body, her stomach churning a little. Taking a deep breath to empty her mind of this grotesque death, she looks at her friends once more. Hana lies on her seat, while Yukari is all the way at the far end of the cabin, sitting awkwardly on the floor, while the upper half of her body is supported by one of the seats. Saori is sprawled on the floor of the cabin, with Mako lying on top of her. If it wasn't for the downed helicopter, she would think that Mako was just sleeping, with Saori trying to move her but failing to do so. Deciding that checking on them for any serious injuries is better than just standing and watching them, Miho takes a step forwards, when a voice shouts at her.

"Stop right there!" the voice commands and Miho instantly freezes. "Turn slowly towards us and with your hands raised in the air," a second voice says and Miho obeys, turning slowly towards the two voices with her hands in the air. She finds two men dressed in WW2 uniforms pointing their guns at her. "Come slowly towards us," the older of the two commands and then turns to the other man. "Go and check the interior for any survivors."

The other man nods, and goes straight for the helicopters cabin. "There are more girls inside!" the man shouts. "Four in total. They all wear military gear and seem to be unconscious. There is also a dead guy, one of the main rotor blades almost cut him in half," he informs the older man.

"OK. Get the survivors out here and then bring the pickup truck. I'll notify the commander," he says and the younger man goes back inside the cabin and starts dragging the girls out, one by one. "Base, do you copy?" the older man says to his radio, but only gets static as a response. "Base, can you hear me?" he says a bit louder but once again, he gets no answer back. "Stupid thing, seems to be broken," he mutters, before eyeing Miho and aiming his rifle at her chest. "I'd suggest you keep your arms in the air," he says seriously. In the time he was trying to get in contact with his base, Miho had been slowly lowering her arms, in order to reach for her knife, though this plan is now a bust.

"Sir, all the girls are out," the younger man informs. "I'll go and bring the truck."

"So, what will happen to us?" Miho asks, in an attempt to lower the man's guard to find an opening to attack and maybe learn some information.

"Probably they will put you on a cell and then notify command about you," the man answers back. "Worst case scenario, they will execute you...or worse," the man says and Miho starts sweating a little on the forehead, knowing that she and the girls should in no way be transfered to the base or it's game over for everyone.

"Can I ask you a question?" she asks innocently and that catches the man off-guard.

"What is it?" the man asks back, still aiming the weapon to the general direction of Miho, but not on her.

"Do you have a girl named Maho Nishizumi captive?" she asks and when the man widens his eyes slightly, she knows she's struck gold. She definitely can't get captured now, not when her sister is there in who knows what kind of state.

"I'm sorry," she says and when the man looks at her face with curiosity, she draws her sheathed knife and throws it at the him, hitting him in the left shoulder. The man reflexively lets his weapon fall to the ground and grabs his wounded shoulder. Grabbing the knife, he pulls it out and a small trickle of blood starts seeping out of the surprisingly small cut the knife has caused. Looking in front of him, he realizes a little too late that he has let his guard down, Miho already swinging her right fist upwards and with an uppercut, she knocks him out dead cold, the force being enough to slightly lift him in the air. As the man falls down on the ground, Miho straightens herself, panting slightly. Hearing the sound of an engine, Miho stoops down and grabs the man's assault rifle, aiming it at the incoming vehicle. Stopping in front of the helicopter, the driver's door opens and out comes a man.

"Damn kid, didn't think you had it in you. Guess I can be wrong from time to time," the man says and when Miho hears his voice, her memories of the helicopter flight start coming back.

* * *

 **10 minutes ago**

Flying through the night, the sounds of the rotor blades from a lone Blackhawk transport helicopter fill the air, flying at a low altitude to avoid radar detection. Though the reports said it would be raining, the ominous dark clouds that blanket the sky refuse to release a single drop of rain from their bodies. Nevertheless, this works quite well for the Insertion team, since it means the lack of light will be beneficial for them. Inside the helicopter's cabin, which is illuminated by a dull red light, sit 7 people, the members of the Anglerfish team and the two spec ops soldiers that are more or less making sure the mission will go as smoothly as possible. On the far end of the cabin sits Saori, lazily gazing through the small windows the right sliding door has, looking at the darkness that consumes both sky and ground. She is feeling a little exhausted, mainly because she had spent the past hour trying to calm down Mako, who, being scared of heights, had to be dragged inside the helicopter by Saori and when it lifted itself in the air, she was trembling like a leaf. Yawning a bit, she looks at her right shoulder, where Mako has put her head and is sleeping soundly. _For all the tantrum she had caused one hour ago, she sure is sleeping soundly now,_ Saori thinks as her eyeslids slowly start closing. Putting her head against Mako's, she starts falling asleep, and soon enough she too starts dreaming.

Next to the sleeping duo is Hana and Yukari, who are quietly chatting to pass time, with Hana talking about flower arrangement and Yukari about tanks. Miho, who is sitting next to Hana, tries to go to sleep, but her brain refuses to cooperate with her. Knowing that her sister might be held captive there, is keeping her body on full alert, the anxiety of finally meeting her after 2 whole years making her feel butterflies in her stomach.

Across them sit the 2 spec ops soldier that they will be cooperating with. One of them, the one who is sitting and currently sleeping opposite of Hana, had introduced himself during the start of the mission. His name was John, an American mercenary that had been working for Blackout for at least 5 years, before the whole Apocalypse thing that literally shook the whole world. He was a polite guy and wore a Sombrero, of all things. Miho had no idea how he could fight with such a huge hat, but for him to be still alive, it meant he somehow made it work.

The guy sitting next to him, who was across Miho, he was a real mystery. He seemed to be really cold towards everyone, even his own teammate, though John said he normally was more lively. He didn't have introduced his name and Miho thought it would be a great distraction from the questions that plagued her mind.

"Excuse me," she says quietly at the man that sits across her and he raises his head to gaze at her with his red eyes, his messy black hair, which have an ahoge similar to Hana's, barely visible even with the dull red light that illuminated the cabin. "I don't think we have introduced ourselves. My name is Nishizumi Miho. These are my friends, Isuzu Hana, Akiyama Yukari, Takebe Saori and Reizei Mako," she says and both Hana and Yukari stop talking when they hear their name.

"I'm Vin," he curtly responds, going back to checking his weapon, a silenced SCAR-H with a holographic sight.

"Why is your uniform different from your teammate's?" Yukari asks. Indeed, his uniform and bulletproof vest where quite thick, even for a special operation's unit.

"That's because I am a demolitions expert," he responds and pats lightly a gray backpack that lies next to him. "The uniform is thicker to protect me from shrapnel."

"You mean this backpack is full of explosives?" Hana asks in concern, pointing at the gray backpack.

"Yep. This bag is full of my own custom-made explosives," he grins for the first time since the beginning of the mission. "They are really powerful," he says and retrieves a palm-sized piece from inside the back. "This piece here could incinerate the whole helicopter if it was detonated," he laughs a bit, but then frowns when he sees the terrified faces the girls make. "Relax, it is pretty harmless now. Here, catch," he says, and throws the piece at Miho, who catches it by reflex.

"It feels...sticky," she says, as she starts scanning the gray piece of explosive that she holds with her hands. "Is it like C-4?" Miho asks curiously, handing the piece back to Vin.

"Pretty much, though it is a lot more potent and destructive," he answers Miho's question, putting the piece back inside the gray backpack. "Wait a minute," he suddenly says as revelation hits him. "You are Nishizumi Miho, second daughter of Nishizumi Shiho, the head of the Nishizumi family."

"Eh? You know about my family?" Miho asks in a surprised tone.

"Of course, the Nishizumi style is one of the most famous styles in the Japanese Senshadou!" he says in a super friendly tone, which catches the girls completely off-guard. "I'm a huge fan of Senshadou! I am from the Philippines and was enlisted in the army. I came to Japan for vacations and saw the match against Selection University. I have to say the approval of the Karl-Gerat was a dick move from the JSF," he scowls, remembering everyone's not-so-friendly words at JSF when the siege weapon was shown on the TV. "But I have to admit, you did pretty good, considering you had a bunch of different schools in your team against a team of college students, led by a genius."

"W-Well, it was thanks to everyone's efforts that we won the match," she quickly says, getting a bit embarrassed at the praise.

"I agree with Mr. Vin! We won because of your exceptional leadership Miss Nishizumi!" Yukari says cheerfully and a little loudly. Both Saori and Mako fidget a little on their place, but they don't wake up.

"Be more quiet Yukari," Miho says quickly.

"I'm sorry Miss Nishizumi," Yukari says quietly, looking at the floor, though a pat on her head from Miho rekindles her spirits.

"Hmm. Say, don't you have an older sister?" Vin says, narrowing his eyes at Miho.

"Yes. Her name is Maho," she says slowly, spotting Vin's narrowed eyes. "Is something wrong?"

"It's just that...both you and your sister look a lot like your mother," he says slowly. "Minus the dictatorial behavior."

"M-My mother may be strict," Miho says with an awkward smile, "but that's because she was raised in a very strict environment herself. She's actually a very caring person, it's just that she has...difficulty expressing her emotions," Miho smiles sadly as she starts reminiscing the cheerful days with her family.

 _Beep-beep-beep_

A monotone beeping feels the cabin of the helicopter, and the girls look around the cabin nervously.

"Mmm, what is this sound," Saori groggily says, and a second later she gets her answer.

 _"Missile lock, hold on from something!"_ the pilot says through his radio and immediately banks the helicopter left, dumping flares to confuse the missiles.

"Aaaahhh, I'm too young to die!" Saori yells, with Mako gripping her like she is the last cake in the world, trembling like a leaf from the fear she is feeling.

"Seems like the ride won't be as peaceful as we thought," John says to Vin, fixing his Sombrero that had been tilted forward to cover his face while he was sleeping.

"You bet it won't be," Vin says calmly, a complete contrast from the girls that look all around themselves like scared rats.

The helicopter keeps banking left and right, continuing to throw flares at the ever increasing volume of missiles. Looking out of the small windows the side door has, Miho sees a missile flying past them, exploding harmlessly in the distance.

"If we keep firing flares, we will be fine, right?" Yukari asks no one in particular, trying to reassure herself they will be fine.

"You realize that flares don't work always, right?" Vin says from his seat and as to be proved correct, one of the missiles ignores the flares completely and strikes the tail of the helicopter, blowing the entire tail section to small burning pieces.

"Mayday, Mayday, this is Transport-29, we are going down, I repeat, we are going down!" the pilot shouts from the cockpit in the comms. As the helicopter keeps spinning faster and faster, the girls start panicking, while Vin starts laughing.

"Hahaha, guess this is the end of the line boys and girls!" he says.

"This is the best thing you could come up with?!" John says incredulously at Vin. "I swear Vin, if I die, I'm gonna come back from the dead and haunt you!"

 _"Brace for impact!"_ the pilot says to the comms, the helicopter about five meters away from the ground.

"I just want to go home!" Saori starts crying as the helicopter crashes down and everything seems to go in slow motion for Miho. With the force of the impact, Miho gets flung out of her seat and finds herself flying through the air inside the cabin. She can clearly see the faces of her friends, with Saori hugging Mako as tight as she can and screaming, both of them squeezing their eyes shut, Hana squeezing her eyes shut too, though she seems a little bit more elegant than the others, even at a time like this. Yukari looks terrified, but is looking directly at Miho, shouting something at her, which she cannot hear sadly.

Hitting the opposite wall of the cabin, she sees one of the main rotor blades entering the cabin, passing in front of her and cutting her bulletproof vest and uniform in half, but thankfully missing her skin by the width of a hair. The blade passes millimeters away from Vin's neck and hits John, severing his left arm from the elbow and down and lodging itself halfway through his torso. Shrapnel start raining everywhere in the cabin and a particularly large piece of metal grazes Miho's left arm from her elbow all the way up the side of her upper arm, cutting the uniform along the way. Falling to the floor of the cabin, she hits her head quite hard and everything becomes black.

* * *

Lowering her weapon, Miho sighs in relief. "I'm glad you are OK," she says, slinging the AK-47 over her right shoulder.

"Yeah, though John wasn't so lucky. The bastard's going to be haunting my dreams for the rest of my life," he grumbles as he goes inside the cabin to retrieve John's dogtags and check on the pilots. "Wake up your friends, we need to get moving ASAP."

Nodding in response, Miho quickly goes over her friends and starts shaking them slightly. "Girls, wake up," she says a bit loudly and Saori stirs up a little. "Saori, are you OK?" she asks in concern, checking Saori's body for any serious wounds.

"My head hurts," she groans, sitting up on the ground and clutching her head with both hands. "What happened?"

"We were shot down. Help me wake up the others, we need to get out of here as soon as possible," Miho says and goes to wake up Yukari. Still feeling dizzy, Saori looks at her left and spots the unconscious Mako, tugging on her shirt a little bit.

Thinking of what would wake up Mako, she takes a deep breath and says the first thing that comes to her mind. "Mako, what would your grandma say if she saw you sleeping like that?!" she scolds Mako and the effect is instant.

"Aaaahhhh!" Mako shouts, sitting up faster than a human should be able to, looking all around her with a scared expression. Not seeing her grandma anywhere, she turns to face Saori. "That was a cheap trick Saori," she says with an annoyed expression.

"I'm sorry Mako, but it was the only way for me to be sure you would wake up," she says with an apologetic tone, as she stands up and dusts off herself. By now, Miho has managed to wake up both Yukari and Hana, who are asking Miho what happened and if she is OK.

"Good, you are all up," Vin says, exiting the cabin of the helicopter. "Get inside the truck, we need to get out of here now."

"What about the pilots?" Yukari asks.

"They are dead from blood loss."

"Wait,where is your friend?" Saori asks, looking around, but not seeing John anywhere.

"He is dead too, now get inside the truck," he answers her, as he opens the driver's door and gets in to start up the pickup truck.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she says sadly, as she climbs at bed of the truck, along with Hana and Miho, while Yukari and Mako sit in the cabin of the truck.

"OK, listen up ladies!" Vin says loudly as he starts driving the truck towards the enemy's base. "Our mission is still on. We infiltrate the base, save your friends and send the signal to the jets to bomb everything back to the stone age." Giving a map of the enemy's base to Mako, she tells her to open it up and stick it at the rear windshield of the cabin. The map showed three big buildings, along with several watch towers and a chain link fence all around it. At one side of the base was a huge square that had the words "Tank Depot" on top of it.

"As you can see, the base has three main buildings and several smaller ones. We are interested at one of the smaller buildings that is directly next to the Fuel Depot for the tanks," he says and the girls see at the map a small square next to the Fuel Depot. "This is where your friends are probably being held. We will enter from the Tank Depot, make our way to the building, get your friends and get the hell out of there as fast as possible."

"How are we going to be extracted, since our transport is destroyed?" Miho asks Vin.

"The transponder for the jets can also send a small message. We will use it to ask for a transport. The only disadvantage is that we won't be able to receive an answer," he says to Miho.

"Miho, your hand!" Saori gasps and everyone looks at Miho in alarm.

"Hmm? Oh, it's just a shallow cut Saori, nothing to worry about," Miho says quickly, but Saori has none of this.

"Jesus Christ, kid! Don't yell like that for just a small graze," Vin says at Saori, who completely ignores his comment.

"You know, it could get infected," she says back at Miho, grabbing her hand to inspect the wound.

"Here you go," Hana hands Saori a roll of gauze and some antiseptic so she can start treating the wound.

"Thanks a lot Saori," Miho smiles at her friend.

"Umm, Mr. Vin, how old are you?" Yukari asks slowly. "Cause you look very young."

" I'm 22," he responds to Yukari.

"You are really young."

"Says the 19 year old brat," Vin smirks a little. "I also have a daughter. She's turning 4 in two months."

At this, the girls stop everything they are doing and look at him with surprised looks.

"You have a daughter?!" they cry out in unison, the shock of such statement stunning the girls temporarily.

"Yep, her name is...why are you all looking at me with such surprise?" he asks when he sees the girls' expressions.

"You are only 22, when did you get married?!"Saori blurts out.

"Well, it's a little complicated and I'd rather not talk about it," he says with a serious expression.

"Is she back in your country?" Miho asks.

"No. When I came to Japan for vacations, I brought her with me. She's probably sleeping back in the base right now," Vin answers back.

"Will she be okay alone?" Hana asks in concern for the little girl.

"I actually have a friend watching over her for now. Plus most of the nursing staff knows her. She is a klutz, so she tends to get hurt often," Vin laughs a little. "So when either I, or my friend ain't around, she goes and hangs out with the nurses."

Miho wants to ask about the little girl's mother, but she decides against it. The rest of the travel towards their destination is uneventful, with Vin taking the most deserted roads to avoid any patrols and manages to bring them at a distance of about 500 meters away from their infiltration point. Both Vin and the girls disembark the vehicle and after reorganizing and redistributing their weapons, they slowly make their way towards the chain link fence. Vin kept his silenced SCAR-H and backpack full of explosives, Saori, Yukari and Hana took a silenced pistol each, while Mako and Miho kept their knives.

"Listen well, from here on out, you'll do whatever I tell you. If I say shoot, you shoot, understood?" he asks as they approach the fence and the girls nod in response. "Good. Now then, let the games begin." Putting his backpack on the ground, he retrieves a bolt cutter and starts cutting the fence. Thankfully, the watchtowers have no searchlights and the Tank Depot, which is a dirt lot with parked tanks on it, is completely devoid of any life. Cutting a sizable hole, Vin enters first, his weapon raised and scanning his surroundings. Seeing no one, he quickly runs and hides at the side of a T-34-85 and motions the girls to come quickly. The girls quickly enter through the hole and dash at the tank, taking cover like Vin.

"OK, here's the plan. I'll give you all a sizable portion of my explosives and split into two teams. You'll stick a bit of the explosives under the tanks, in case we need a small distraction," Vin says to the girls, handing them a fair amount of his homemade explosives to them. "Set the frequency on the detonator at the 1st channel. After that we will meet at the entrance of the target building. Miho and ahoge girl, you are with me."

"She has a name, you know," Saori frowns at him.

"It's okay Saori, I don't mind," Hana says to Saori to calm her down.

"But Hana-"

"Enough chit-chat girls," Vin interrupts Saori and goes a few rows of tanks down, sticking a bit of his explosives on each one, with Miho and Hana following him.

"I don't like this man at all," Saori grumbles, following Yukari and Mako, who decided to go in the opposite direction.

"Come on Saori, don't be like that. He just gave Hana a nickname, that's all," Yukari says to Saori, while covering Mako who is setting the explosives under the tanks. "Like Kay gave me the" Sergeant Oddball" nickname."

"I'm done with this tank," Mako says and moves to the next one. Yukari and Saori keep their guards up in case someone comes, but the only guards patrolling this place are too far to notice the girls in the darkness of the dirt lot. As they reach the end of the rows of tanks they are currently between, the three girls lean against the rear of one of the T-34-85s.

"There are a lot of Soviet tanks here," Yukari comments, eyeing the rows of T-34s, T-34-85s and T-50s.

"Probably supplied by Pravda's new administration," Mako says quietly.

"I hope Katyusha is fine," Saori sighs. "Who would have thought that the girls would fight amongst each other for power."

"Let's hope that nothing like that has happened to the other schools," Yukari says.

Looking around the corner, Mako comes face to face with one of the patrolling guards, both of them looking at each other's eyes. They both stay motionless, staring at each other, as if daring them to make the first move.

"What's wrong Mako?" Saori asks and the guard springs into action, raising his AK-47 to fire at Mako. She on the other hand, rounds the corner swiftly and puts her knife, that she is holding with her right hand, in front of the man's neck.

"If you scream or move, I'll slit your throat," Mako says at the guard with her usual sleepy expression, which seems a bit more lively during night, and the man lets his gun fall from his arms as a sign he doesn't want any trouble. Both Saori and Yukari round the corner with pistols raised, aiming them at the man.

"Please don't kill me, I have family and kids to take care of," he pleads, looking directly at Mako.

"We won't kill you," she says as Yukari walks past her and hits the man on the head with the butt of her silenced pistol, applying enough force to knock him out. After he falls down, the girls take his gun and any ammunition for it, and hide his body under one of the tanks.

"At least now we have an extra weapon to use," Yukari says as the girls go towards the target building. Reaching it, they wait for Vin and the others to come. "Do you think Miss Nishizumi's sister is here?" Yukari asks out of the blue.

"I hope so. She's been acting weird ever since she learned about her being captive," Saori says sadly.

"She hasn't seen her in 2 years and when she finally learns about her whereabouts, she also learns she is being held captive by some crazy dudes with WW2 uniforms," Mako interjects. "I think her reaction is understandable."

"I guess you are right," Saori sighs. "Why are they taking so long?" At that exact moment, Miho and Hana round the corner of the target building, quickly approaching the girls.

"What took you so long?" Saori asks Miho.

"Vin wanted to place explosives on the Fuel Depot," Miho informs her and the others.

"Is he trying to destroy the entire base by himself?" Yukari asks.

"I'd love too, but I don't have enough bombs for that," Vin answers, rounding the corner of the target building and quickly approaching the girls. "We have about 15 minutes before the jets start bombing the place, so let's get in there and extract the girls," he says and goes in front of the door.

"Didn't you tell us we would have half an hour? When did you activate the transponder?" Yukari asks curiously.

"When I was assigning the weapons," he says quietly. "15 minutes should be enough time." Opening the door just a tiny bit, he peers through the small opening he has created. He spots no guards inside, only an empty chair, so he opens the door more and motions to the girls to go inside. After everyone gets in, he enters too and closes the door behind him as quietly as he can.

"This building is creepy. It has no windows," Saori says, looking around the room and seeing no windows whatsoever. "And why is there only a steel door at the end of it?"

"Probably is the prison cell. But where is the guard?" Vin mutters to himself, but Yukari overhears him.

"Maybe their shift ended?" she suggests.

"Then where is their replacement?" he asks. "Anyway, we don't have much time, so get moving." Approaching the door Vin takes cover next to it and so does Miho, Saori and Mako. Hana and Yukari stay behind to defend the entrance to the building, in case someone decides to enter it.

"Hey I think I can hear voices from inside Saori says, but Vin places a finger in front of his mouth to indicate to her to be silent.

"Did I kill him?"

"Wh-Why would you do something like that Anchovy?!"

"It was an accident, Assam! I just got scared and used a lot more force!"

"The plan was to knock him out, not kill him!"

"You snapped his neck for God's sake! How is that an accident?"

"You saw his intentions Assam,you'd have done the same thing if you were in my position!"

"Both of you, be silent for a second!"

Upon hearing the third voice, Miho just kicks the door open and enters the room.

"Sister!" she yells, as she hugs and tackles to the ground a tall girl with short dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. The girl, which bears a striking resemblance to Miho, just looks at her with confusion and surprise at first. "I'm so glad you are safe!" Miho cries at her sister's chest, tears of joy and happiness running on her cheeks.

"Miho?" is the only thing Maho can say at first, still not believing what she is seeing. "What are you doing here?"

" And why are you all wearing military gear?" a girl with long grey hair tied into twin ponytails and red-brown eyes, adds.

"And who is this guy with you and your friends?" a girl with long blonde hair and light purple eyes, asks. She has a somewhat extravagant hairstyle that is complemented by a black hairband.

"I guess these are the girls we need to extract?" Vin asks Saori.

"Yes. The girl with the twin ponytails is Anchovy, the blonde girl is named Assam and the girl Miho is hugging is her sister, Maho," Saori answers back.

"And what happened to that guy over there?" Vin points at at the limp body of a man that lies on one of the corners of the room.

"I broke his neck," Anchovy says bluntly and shivers a little. "The sound still makes me shiver."

"You still didn't answer my question," Assam interjects. "Who are you, how do you know these girls and why are they wearing military equipment and uniforms?"

"We all work in a private military company named Blackout and we were hired by the JSDF to come and save you," Vin says as quickly as humanly possible, guessing it is better to answer than convince her to wait. "Now get onto your feet and out of the room, because this whole base will be nothing but debris in 7 minutes."

"Wait, you girls are mercenaries?" Assam asks in disbelief.

"Is this true Miho?" Maho asks in a concerned voice and Miho adverts her gaze from her.

"Y-Yes," Miho says slowly and Maho just hugs her.

"I'm just glad you are alright," she sighs in relief, glad to she her younger sister after 2 years. "I'm sure you had your own reasons for doing a job like this. Though we'll have to talk about this," she says the last part with a serious expression and Miho starts sweating a little.

"Look, as much as I don't want to interrupt this family reunion, we need to get going now!" Vin says and gets out of the room, approaching the entrance of the building they are in. Miho gets up and helps her sister to stand up.

"Miho, your arm," Maho says urgently when she sees Miho's bandaged arm.

"It's fine, don't worry," Miho reassures her with a smile. As everyone gathers in the door, Vin turns around and faces all the girls.

"We have only 5 minutes before the jets arrive, so listen carefully. The moment I open this door, everyone runs back at the pickup truck," he says and everyone nods in agreement. "As for you three," he points at Maho, Assam and Anchovy, "You just follow the girls. Whatever happens, don't stop or you might not make it out alive." And with that, Vin opens the door and runs out, firing his gun at two guards that are coming towards his direction. He manages to kill one of them, but the other starts firing at Vin, the small arms fire echoing through the base. Finally killing him, the alarm of the base starts blaring.

"We are leaving, now!" he yells at the girls and they start running towards the part of the fence which they had cut to enter the base. Flares illuminate the sky, as people start shouting all over the place.

"Don't stop running!" Vin yells, as he covers the rear by firing at anyone who dares to enter his weapon's sights. As the girls start getting close to the chain link fence, Saori notices that Assam gets slower and slower, her movements becoming sluggish.

"Come on Assam, we need to get out of here!" Saori yells at her.

"I...can't...run...anymore," Assam says in a strained voice between her pants and as she is running between the tanks, a man appears out of nowhere and grabs Assam by the hair, causing her to arch her top half of her body backwards and fall to the ground. "Gaah," she cries out as she hits the ground. Looking up, she sees the barrel of an assault rifle being pointed directly on her face. Before she can even scream for help, Saori dashes in front of the man and presses her silenced pistol against his forehead, the man noticing her too late to do anything. Saori pulls the trigger and blood splashes all over her pistol and hand. The man's head jerks backwards and falls to the ground, his weapon cluttering next to Assam.

"Are you okay?" she asks Assam quickly, but Assam just gazes back at her with a horrified expression, a little bit of blood on her face. Saori just lifts her up and drags her by her right hand.

"Move faster girls!" Vin shouts as he approaches them, with several bullets barely missing him. Reaching the fence, they pass through the cut part of it and run straight for the pickup truck. "Time for the fireworks," he laughs and detonate his explosives, with several big explosions shaking the whole base. Reaching the truck, they take cover behind it, where the rest are.

"Did the bombing started?!" Yukari asks, having witnessed the explosions.

"No, these were the explosives we set up," Vin answers back, panting slightly from all the running. "I'd suggest you cover your ears," he says and everyone looks at him curiously.

"What do you-" Miho starts saying when three huge explosions obliterate the base, the shockwave reaching and shaking the truck and the girls, with debris and chunks of dirt raining everywhere.

"What was that?!" Saori yells as she looks at the burning remains of the once enemy base with awe and fear.

"What destructive power," Maho blurts out and most of the girls nod in agreement.

"That was a fuel-air bomb," he answers back to Saori. "It is used in destroying enemy fortifications or clusters of enemies."

 _"Infiltration team 2, this is Transport-32, responding to your encrypted message, how copy?"_ Vin gets a transmission and immediately presses his earpiece to talk.

"We copy you loud and clear. We are 500 meters west of the destroyed base," Vin responds back at the pilots of the helicopter.

 _"Copy that. ETA 2 minutes, over and out,"_ the pilot says as he terminates the transmission.

"What happened?" Miho asks.

"They got our message and sent a helicopter. It will be here in 2 minutes."

"That's good to hear," she sighs in relief.

"Miho," Maho says, approaching her sister. "Do you have a moment? I want to speak with you in private."

"Sure," Miho responds back to her cheerfully, glad to be able to speak with her sister again after so long.

Meanwhile Saori just sits on the ground, using her hands to support herself. "I can't wait to go back to base and have a nice bath," she says.

"I just want to sleep," Mako, who is using Saori's lap as a pillow, yawns.

"You always want to sleep," Saori frowns slightly at her friend, before yawning too. "Look at what you have done, I'm getting sleepy too."

While Anchovy and Yukari go to speak with Saori and Mako, Hana goes to check on Assam, who is quietly gazing back at the burning base.

"Is everything alright, Miss Assam?" Hana asks politely.

"Ah, Miss Hana," Assam says, getting startled a little, but quickly regaining her composure. "Y-Yes, everything is fine."

"You seem a bit troubled," Hana says back. "Are you sure everything is fine?" she asks.

"Yes, don't worry about it," she politely smiles at Hana.

"If you say so," Hana smiles back and goes to speak with the rest of the girls. What has been troubling Assam, is the fact at how easily Saori killed that guard, back in the base. Granted, it was her life or his at that point, but Saori didn't even flinch or hesitated when she pulled the trigger...and that really terrifies her. It isn't the easiness with which a life can be extinguished that scares her, she has seen it happening too many times to be really shaken, but the apathy one can show towards such an action, in this case when Saori killed the guard. Then again, for all she knows, Saori could be just acting like everything is fine, so her friends won't worry, because taking lives and spilling blood isn't something that should be thought as something common, nor something you get used too.

 _These 2 years have really changed...all of us,_ she thinks as she spots a helicopter approaching them. _It's as Darjeeling said. "We have already spilled blood on our hands Assam, what's a little more?"_

* * *

 **A/N: Finally done rewriting this chapter too! Not anything else to say.** **A** **nyway, a** **s always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and** **there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**


	7. Chapter 7: The Birth of the Wolves

**The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 7: Birth of the Wolves**

* * *

 **Wednesday**

 **25th of May 2 Y.A.**

 **8:55 am**

 **Blackout Main Base**

 **Hospital building**

Inside a large hospital room, which has several medical beds, are several girls, happily talking to each other. After the infiltration teams returned from their missions, Orange Pekoe, Naomi and Carpaccio were admitted to the base's hospital, where they were treated for their wounds. There was some friction between Assam and Odysseus, who seemed eager to argue with each other, even after two years of not seeing each other. Thankfully, Annabelle was there to keep them at bay (mainly Odysseus) and in the end they managed to have a decent conversation. Miho mostly spoke with her sister, catching up on what happened these 2 years they were separate, but also checked on how the rest of the girls were. Right now, though, only Annabelle, Assam, Anchovy and the girls that were admitted to the hospital for their injuries are inside the hospital room and chat with each other.

"I had heard Anzio was always good at making Italian food, but I never expected you to be able to make something so good that isn't from Italy," Annabelle says as she practically devours the crepe Anchovy had made earlier in the day, when she borrowed the hospital's kitchen, which surprisingly had a lot of different ingredients; she expected it to have food with no salt and a lot of jelly. Thus she made breakfast for all the girls, though she might have gone a bit overboard with the number of servings, as the girls ended with 3 crepes each.

"Hey, just because our school is themed after Italy, that doesn't mean we can't cook other types of food or dessert," Anchovy answers back, having already eaten her own share.

"I am amazed that they even let you use the hospital's kitchen," Carpaccio says, having eaten her share of crepes too. "This is a military base after all."

"I bet that blonde girl Assam was arguing with, had to do something with it," Naomi says, chewing some bubblegum. "She seems like the type that can do anything she wants and doesn't care for any consequences."

"Actually, it was Miho that asked for permission to use the hospital's kitchen," Anchovy informs the rest of the girls. "The whole time I was making the crepes, she was there supervising me."

"I have to say, I never expected Miho and her friends to do such job," Assam admits openly to the others. "Or you lady Annabelle, for that matter."

"I guess she had her reasons for becoming a mercenary," Annabelle responds to Assam. "As for me, this is the path that I chose. At least with this job, I get to have a room to stay and a plate of food to eat. Also, someone needs to keep an eye on Elpida, to make sure she won't do anything stupid. You know how she can be sometimes."

"Indeed," Assam sighs lightly, remembering all the trouble Odysseus kept creating back to the carrier. "She can be really difficult to deal with, most of the time. She just behaves like a little child."

"But being a mercenary is a dangerous job," Orange Pekoe says, having finished her breakfast. Anchovy stands up and starts gathering the plates. "Wouldn't it be better if you came back to the carrier?" she asks Annabelle with a calm tone.

"I appreciate it for you being concerned over my well-being, but this is the path I chose and I intend to follow it till the end," Annabelle responds back with a serious expression.

"Even if it means you might lose your life?" Naomi asks and silence feels the room.

"Yes," Annabelle curtly nods. "But enough with me, what about you? It must have been hard living on the carrier."

"The first year was really difficult and we had some incidents with bandits, but after establishing connections with the other carriers, it became a lot easier," Assam informs Annabelle.

"We started exchanging resources and helping each other, so we really don't need to worry too much about food or fuel anymore," Anchovy says as she moves towards the room's exit to go the used plates back to the kitchen.

"And we also trade with nearby towns for things we can't produce ourselves," Orange Pekoe continues. "We even take escort requests from traders from time to time."

"At least everyone is doing fine," Annabelle sighs lightly, glad that the girls in the carrier are doing fine. Looking at a clock that hangs in the wall opossite from her, Annabelle stands up, pushing the chair she has been sitting a little backwards. "Well, I guess I should get going. Need to start preparing for the next mission," she says to the rest of the girls. "Have a lovely day everyone," she exclaims and walks to the exit of the room, but stops, turning to look at Assam. "Before I forget it, the helicopter leaves at 10, Assam, so you better be at the helipad by 9:30," she says to Assam and then leaves the room to go and prepare her equipment for the next mission.

"Are you sure about this Assam?" Orange Pekoe asks worryingly. "Darjeeling said that participation isn't mandatory."

"I know, but Darjeeling also said she couldn't find a replacement gunner for the Churchill," Assam responds. "Plus, I can't let lady Annabelle alone with Elpida."

"Why are you so against her and Annabelle be friends?" Orange Pekoe asks Assam. "Is it because of what she did to the Cromwell?"

"That is one of the reasons, yes," she pauses for a second, before continuing. "But the main reason is that she isn't befit of being anywhere near nobility. She is reckless, lacks elegance and proper etiquette, doesn't behave like a proper lady should and speaks very casually to her," Assam scoffs.

"Wait, that redhead that was here minutes ago, is nobility?" Anchovy asks as she enters the room, returning to it after leaving the used plates in the hospital's kitchen.

"Yes. She was a transfer student from England," Orange Pekoe answers to Anchovy, who sits on the edge of Carpaccio's bed, which is on the left side of Orange Pekoe. "Since she had excellent grades and behavior, not to mention that she was from England and a noble family, she was accepted instantly."

"What about the girl you call Elpida?" Naomi asks, still chewing her bubblegum. "And why did she call herself by the name "Odysseus"?"

"We really don't know much about her," Assam admits. "Even Darjeeling doesn't know that much, and whatever she knows, she refuses to share it with the others."

"As for why she calls herself by that nickname, she says that it is easier for people to pronounce it than her real name," Orange Pekoe answers Naomi's second question.

"Do you think she could have somehow forged her admittance papers?" Anchovy asks and everyone turns to look at her.

"No. The admittance papers are made in the carrier and each copy has a unique serial number, as well as other security measures. It is virtually impossible to forge them, unless you have a lot of time and money to spare," she informs Anchovy.

"You won't really know until you try," Naomi says to Assam.

"What about her past?" Carpaccio asks with a curious tone.

"We tried to run a basic background check on her, but came up with nothing," Orange Pekoe answers Carpaccio. "It's as if she didn't exist before coming to the carrier."

"That's unusual," Anchovy says.

Looking at the clock that is hanging in one of the room's walls, Assam stands up. "If you'll excuse me, I need to get going," she says politely. "Have a nice day, everyone," she smiles and proceeds to exit the room.

"Please be careful," Orange Pekoe says back at her.

"Why did you decide not to participate, Duce?" Carpaccio asks Anchovy. "All the other schools will participate in the final phase of this operation."

"Because unlike the other schools, our tanks are not that good in real warfare. Against infantry, sure they can do wonders, but against other tanks or anti-tank weapons?" Anchovy says with a bitter expression. "We are just cannon fodder at best, liability at worst." Silence feels the room for a few minutes, before Orange Pekoe finally breaks it.

"I just hope everyone will be safe," she says with a concerned expression. "As unlikely as such an outcome might be."

"All of the carrier commanders will be there, including Miho!" Anchovy exclaims quickly. "What could possibly go wrong?"

"You'd be amazed at how wrong things can go in a battlefield," Naomi says with a serious expression.

"That sounded really ominous," Anchovy professes.

"Anchovy, could I ask you to bring me a cup of tea?" Orange Pekoe asks.

"Sure, no problem," Anchovy responds back and stands up, starting to walk towards the hospital's kitchen to make some tea for everyone.

* * *

 **1 hour later**

 **En route to Blackout's forward HQ**

 **ETA: 25 minutes**

Two Blackhawk transport helicopters soar through the sky as they make their way towards Blackout's forward HQ. After the successful completion of phases 1 and 2 of Operation Downfall, preparations for the commence of phase 3 had already begun. But because Blackout had to provide security for the carriers, for the time being, and help the JSDF eliminate R.I.J.A. bases across Japan, their resources and available units were running thin. So, they asked the carriers to help with this problem by participating in the final attack. Thankfully, for Blackout, almost all carrier commanders accepted, though each one had a different reason for it. Inside one of the helicopters sit Odysseus and her team, along with Assam who insisted on escorting Annabelle for the duration of this travel. On the other helicopter sit Miho and her team, along with Maho, Nonna and Katyusha. The girls spent most of their time chatting with each other, mainly with Katyusha recounting fights against bandits and how they faced their ends against Pravda's might.

"And then the whole building got destroyed in a huge explosion as the KV-2 fired its cannon!" Katyusha says excitedly, making an explosion gesture with her hands.

"Seems you had your hands full these past 2 years," Miho says at Katyusha.

"Nah, these shrimps could do nothing against our tanks," Katyusha says, waving her hand in a dismissive manner. "But enough with Pravda's grand achievements. What I want to know, Pirozki, is how and why you and your friends joined a PMC," Katyusha says with curiosity. "And what happened to your carrier? Is everyone fine?"

"Katyusha, it is impolite to ask such personal questions," Nonna warns Katyusha, before turning to face Miho. "Please excuse her impoliteness, Miho," Nonna says.

Miho merely shakes her head a little. "It's ok, Nonna, I don't mind answering," she smiles at her a little. "Girls, do you mind if I answer Katyusha's questions?" she asks the rest of her team, since it involves them too. The girls shake their heads to show that they do not mind, minus Mako who is sleeping. Seeing that, Miho turns to face Katyusha, before starting to answer her questions. "You see, when the earthquakes happened, we weren't aboard the carrier. We randomly stumbled upon it in a beach one day. Though we found it beached and completely devoid of any people, so we don't really know what happened," she pauses for a little, before continuing.

"We suspect that the carrier was running low on supplies, so they had to beach it," Hana comments and both Katyusha and Nonna nod in agreement.

"Sounds reasonable. All of the carriers did this," Maho says. "Though it is quite weird for everyone to just outright abandon it."

"Maybe there weren't any supplies to loot from the nearby areas?" Nonna suggests, but Miho shakes her head.

"We thought about it, but when we searched around the carrier, we found a lot of supplies and belongings just lying around."

"Additionally, there were traces of a battle in the beach," Yukari says with a concerned expression. "Rabbit's M3 Lee was completely destroyed and the beach was full of small craters, bullets and blood stains."

"You mean someone attacked your carrier and even killed your friends?!" Katyusha shouts in surprise and both Maho and Nonna look at Miho with alarmed expressions.

"We aren't sure yet," Miho informs them. "It could be a ruse from the Student Council to cover their tracks. We also checked the M3 Lee for any bodies, and although we did find some, they were too big to be Rabbit team," she says with an uneasy tone.

"So they could still be somewhere out there," Maho says and Miho nods.

"As for how we joined Blackout," Miho turns to face Katyusha. "the events that lead to this started about a week after we stumbled upon the carrier."

* * *

 **Six months after the earthquakes**

 **Somewhere in Japan**

In a deserted road, a lone tank colored brown moves slowly on it, the asphalt under its metallic treads cracking slightly under the weight it must support. The evening sun shines brilliantly in the blue sky, feeding the plants on the ground with much needed sunlight they need to survive. From the cupola of the tank stands out a highschool girl, her light brown eyes lazily gazing her surrounding, the cool breeze that flows by, gently rustling her light brown hair. In front of her she holds a map of Japan, filled with various markers made with a pencil.

"Miporin, are we there yet?" a voice calls from inside, so Miho folds the map and dives inside the tank, leaving the cupola's hatch open.

"We should be arriving any moment now, Saori," Miho answers to her ginger haired friend, who is reading a manga.

"We better be, or we will have to walk the rest of the way," Mako says from the driver's seat, glancing at the fuel indicator that shows the fuel tank is almost empty.

"I wouldn't mind," Hana says from the gunner's seat. "We have been crumpled inside the tank for over 7 hours.

"I agree with Hana. I'd love to stretch my body a bit," Yukari says, trying to stretch her hands as much as she can inside the tank.

"And have a bath!" Saori complains. "Ah, the the sweet feeling of hot water soaking your body," she says dreamily, closing her eyes and imagining herself submerging her body to some hot water.

"Maybe we will find a hot spring or something along the way," Yukari says optimistically.

"Though it would be nice, the map doesn't show any hot springs near the gas station," Miho informs Yukari, and both she and Saori sigh in defeat.

"Then the map might be wrong," Mako says back to Miho. "Gas station up ahead and it seems there is another building with it."

Hearing this, Miho peeks out of the tank's cupola with a pair of binoculars. Peering through them, she spots two buildings on the horizon, one that has the distinct shape of a gas station, colored green and blue. On the other side of the road is a building that has a small parking area in front of it and a big neon sign that reads "Hot Springs", though it seems like both buildings are without electricity. "Either God exists and he heard our prayers, or we are extremely lucky," she mutters to herself as she lowers her binoculars. Diving back inside the tank, she marks the hot spring's location on the map, before turning to face the rest of her crew. "It seems there is a hot spring across the gas station."

"Yes! Our prayers have been finally heard!" Saori cries in joy, raising her arms in the air, with a part of them protruding out of her opened hatch.

"It will be nice to have a proper bath after so long," Hana says with a smile, and Yukari nods in agreement.

"Yeah. It would be nice to bathe with something different than bottled water," Yukari complains.

"First of all, we will stop at the gas station to refuel the tank and see if we can find any supplies," Miho says and everyone nods in agreement. "Also, we will need to check out the other building to see if there is any electricity or even a generator."

"Yes!" everyone responds, having cheered up from the prospect of taking a normal bath with hot water after only God knows how long. Reaching the gas station after about five minutes, Mako stops next to one of the gas pumps and shuts the engine down. Everyone exits from their respective hatches and jumps down on the ground.

"OK everyone, listen up," Miho orders and everyone looks at her with a serious expression. "Me and Saori will go and look for supplies inside the gas station. Mako, I want you to refuel the tank," she says and looks at the pumps for a moment. "The pump must be electric, but seems to have a lever for manual use too," she points at a lever next to the pump. "Yukari, I want you to operate the pump, till the fuel tank is full and then I want you to fill the empty fuel cans we have. Hana, you'll be on sentry duty. If you see anyone, tell Mako to turn the engine on. If they seem to have any malicious intentions, fire a warning shot with the coaxial, that should scare them off." Looking at the girls one more time, the girls nod back in agreement and everyone starts moving.

While Miho and Saori go inside the gas station to scavenge for any supplies, Mako grabs the pump's nozzle and puts it on the fuel tank. Yukari, who has already taken her position besides the pump, sees Mako signaling her to start the pump, so she starts turning the lever clockwise and after a few moments, fuel starts getting pumped in the fuel tank. Hana sits on top of the Panzer IV's turret, scanning the surrounding area with a pair of binoculars. "It really is like we found ourselves in a different world," Hana muses, looking at the landscape, which is devoid of any humans and animals, only an eerie silence filling the air.

"Do you think...the rest of the girls...are safe?" Yukari asks, panting a little from operating the fuel pump manually.

"The chances are quite high actually," Mako says, looking inside the tank momentarily to see how much fuel has gone in. "We found the carrier completely abandoned. The only signs of something happening were on the beach and even then, what we found led nowhere."

"I'm sure everyone is fine," Hana says calmly, smiling to Yukari for a brief moment.

"I hope so," Yukari murmurs quietly, thinking about her parents and their safety. Without any leads as to where the carrier occupants went, she couldn't track down her parents. What if they are in trouble? What if they are dead? She dreaded the answer to these questions, but she wanted to know. Wanting to take her mind of these kind of thoughts, she looks at the tank in front of her. The Panzer IV ausf H, a german medium tank used extensively in WW2 and one of Ooarai's Senshadou team's best tanks. Looking at it, memories from her time on the carrier come back on her mind. How she would train with her friends after school, the uphill battles they had managed to win during the tournament and then, the match with Selection. This tank, despite the punishment it had received from all the fighting, would always be ready to serve her and her friends, help them achieve their goals. Even after six months of intense use, it still kept working, even without any mantainance. Though it was still operable, these past few months had left their markings on its hull. The Schürzen plates on both the hull and the turret were rusted by the nature's forces and the cartoonish anglerfish that was painted there, the Anglerfish team's emblem, had nearly faded. At the back of the turret three metal boxes had been welded on the Schürzen plates to hold supplies. At the plates on the sides of the turret, five sleeping bags were tied, covered with a waterproof sheet to make sure they wouldn't get wet when it was raining.

"Yukari, the tank is full," Yukari hears a voice saying to her, so she stops turning the lever, panting slightly. Mako removes the fuel pump's nozzle from the fuel tank and after closing its lid, she puts the nozzle back to the pump. "I'll get the fuel cans down to fill them up," Mako informs her and climbs up the tank to retrieve the fuel tanks that are, too, tied on the turret's Schürzen plates.

Meanwhile, Miho and Saori are scouring the inside of the gas station's mini-market for any supplies it might have. After looking around for a few minutes, they both meet at the cash register.

"What did you find?" Miho asks Saori.

"Lots of water bottles," she answers, though she seems a little bit down for some reason. "It should last us for a few weeks if we load them all somehow."

"Is everything okay?" Miho asks in concern, seeing Saori's sour expression.

"Everything edible in here is spoiled!" Saori yells out suddenly. "The only things I found were three jars of honey and a ton of canned food! Canned food!" she shouts and then lets her head drop down. "I'm sick of eating it. I want to eat some homemade food for once," she says dejectedly. "Am I asking that much?"

"You just have to be patient," Miho says with a sympathetic smile, placing her right hand on Saori's left shoulder. Saori raises her head and reluctantly nods.

"I...I guess you are right," she says slowly, looking Miho in her eyes. "Sorry for my outburst."

"Don't worry about it," she says. "Let's start moving the supplies to the tank," she adds and Saori nods in response. As Saori grabs the jars of honey, Miho grabs two six-packs of bottled water and starts carrying them to the tank. Exiting from the mini-market, both she and Saori approach the tank, with Yukari silently sitting in the front of the tank, gazing in no particular direction, while Mako is tying the fuel cans on the turret's spaced armor. Putting the packs of bottled water down on the ground next to the tank, Miho goes to Yukari. "Yukari, could you help me and Saori with the supplies?" she asks and Yukari turns to look at her.

"Sure thing, Miss Nishizumi!" Yukari says cheerfully, glad to help her friend. After half an hour of transferring the supplies and somehow managing to fit them in the tank, all girls enter inside it from their respective hatches.

"These supplies should last us for at least three weeks," Miho says as she slumps in her seat, the muscles in her arms aching a little.

"It is good to know we have some food to spare," Hana smiles. "Though it would be good if we could have found some medical supplies."

"And something else than canned food," Saori adds grumpily, cursing her luck a little. The sun has already start setting by now, the day giving its place to the night and its starry sky. "At least now we can go and check out the hot spring," she says somewhat cheerfully. "At last, some hot water to bathe~"

"Mako get the tank across the road and drive it inside the building. Hana, rotate the turret so it faces backwards," Miho orders. Mako starts the engine and starts rotating the tank, while Hana rotates the turret so that it faces backwards.

"Wait, you are planning to ram the tank in the building?!" Saori asks incredulously as the tank starts gaining speed, quickly approaching the building.

"Yes", Miho curtly answers.

"Brace for impact," Mako says in a monotone voice, just as the tank crashes on the wall. Chunks of concrete and concrete dust get flown all across the building's lobby, as the tank's treads effortlessly crush some of the concrete chunks along with some leather couches and the reception's wooden desk, with splinters flying all over the place. In fact, the tank almost collides with the inner wall, but Mako manages to stop the tank in time. As it rocks back and forth for a few seconds, Miho signals the girls to stay put, as she looks through the cupola's vision ports. After a minute of observing her surroundings through the cupola, Miho speaks to the rest of the girls.

"It doesn't seem like anyone else is in the building," she says slowly, looking one last time around the lobby and the corridors that connect with it, before turning to face her crew. "It should be safe to get out of the tank now. Mako, shut the engine down. We will split in two teams and search the building for anything useful."

"And after that we can bathe in the hot spring!" Saori exclaims cheerfully. So the girls exit the tank and split into two teams and start exploring the building. After about 40 minutes, they all return back to the tank to report their findings. Miho and Yukari managed to find more water, as well as a pharmacy that had a dozen rolls of gauze, two boxes of painkillers and some disinfectant. On the other hand, Saori, Hana and Mako found a generator that thankfully had some fuel in it and managed to activate it. After putting the looted supplies inside the tank, they all went to the hot spring, which was located in the room behind the lobby.

"Ahh, I can feel all my worries melting away," Saori sighs in pure bliss, as the spring's hot water envelops her body up to her neck.

"Hot water really helps your body to relax," Hana says with a smile, enjoying this moment of luxury as much as she can.

"After having to bathe with bottled water these past few weeks, it really is a god-sent gift," Yukari admits, looking at the starry sky, which is visible thanks to the hot spring being outside and having a low lighting level. "The stars are really beautiful."

"They are," Miho says quietly, admiring them as they dot the dark sky like shining gems. Mako is quietly sleeping, having put her head on Saori's left shoulder, despite her friend's constant warnings that you should never fall asleep while bathing.

"Do you think our families are alright?" Saori asks suddenly, she too gazing at the starry sky, but with a concerned expression. "I hope my parents are doing well. They must be really worried," she says the last part in a whisper, so no one hears it.

"I'm sure everyone is fine," Hana says at Saori. "We just don't know where they are."

"But what if something has happened to them and we don't know it?" Yukari says with a concerned tone. "What if we never meet them?"

"It doesn't matter right now," Mako says bluntly and everyone turns to look at her.

"Mako, how can you say something so insensitive?!" Saori berates her friend. "Aren't you worried about your grandma?!"

"I am, Saori," Mako answers back. "She is the only family that I have been left with, since my parents..." Mako pauses for a little, before continuing. "The thing is, worrying about things we can't influence and control in any way isn't going to help us survive."

"You are half-right," Miho says with a smile and everyone turns to look at her. "I too worry about my mother and especially about my sister, but worrying too much won't help me survive in this world and make sure all of you are safe. But, your grandma isn't the only family you have. We all, here, are a family too. The rest of the teams back in the carrier, our classmates, we all are a big family. We help each other when in need, we smile and laugh in joy when happy, we cry tears when sad and in pain," she says with eyes full of determination. "At least that's how I feel about you and the girls back in the carrier. That's why I can remain calm, even when I don't know the fate of my mother and sister...because I know you will always be by my side to support me," she finishes and smiles at her friends again.

"Miss Nishizumi!" Yukari cries as she slams herself on Miho's side and hugs her, crying emotional tears. "You are such a kindhearted person!" Miho pats Yukari on her back to calm her down, smiling warmly at her.

"Heh, thanks a lot," Mako grins back at Miho.

"And that's why you are our commander," Saori says with a smile. Hana says nothing, but gazes at Miho with a serene smile. The girls stayed at the hot spring for about 40 minutes more, before exiting and getting dressed back to their school uniforms. After that, they decided who would keep watch first, in case any people showed up. They also decided that Mako didn't need to keep watch, since she had been driving the tank the whole day. And so the girls went to sleep, to rest their bodies from all the exhaustion and fatigue they had accumulated throughout the day.

* * *

 **8 hours later**

Opening her eyes slowly, Miho blinks a few times and rubs them with her right hand, stirring from her seat slightly. Looking around the tank's dark interior, she spots Mako, Saori and Hana sleeping on their seats. The girls decided to sleep inside the tank this time to keep themselves somewhat warm, since they couldn't light a fire inside the building, in case something caught fire. Folding the blanket she was covering herself with, neatly, she looks around one more time.

 _Where is Yukari?_ she wonders, remembering that the last one to keep watch was supposed to be Saori. _Did she forgot to wake up Saori?_ Exiting from the tank and looking around, she finds Yukari next to the tank, boiling green tea in an electric stove. "Good morning Yukari," Miho waves at her friend and proceeds to climb down the tank.

"Good morning Miss Nishizumi," Yukari waves back and then pours some tea in two plastic cups.

"Why are you still awake Yukari?" Miho asks as she receives a plastic cup full of steaming green tea. "Wasn't Saori supposed to keep watch last?" she asks.

"You see, I really didn't feel like sleeping, so I let Saori sleep a bit more," she answers, before taking a sip from her own plastic cup.

"Are you still worried about your parents?" Miho asks quietly and Yukari nods.

"I just can't stop thinking about them. Where are they, what are they doing?" she says, looking at her cup's contents and swirling it a bit. "What if something has happened to them? I just can't stop these thoughts from flowing into my mind."

"I'm sure they are fine, Yukari," Miho says warmly at her. At this moment, Saori exits from her hatch and makes her way towards the girls.

"Good morning," she says in a groggy voice. "Argh, why is it so bright?" she asks covering her eyes with her right hand, while she let them adjust. "Wait, did I overslept?!" she cries out in alarm, looking outside the hole the building's wall has, the sun happily dousing everything in its light.

Both Miho and Yukari giggle at their friend's alarmed expression. "No, I just didn't feel sleepy, so I took your shift too," Yukari explains to Saori, who somewhat calms down.

"It's not good for your body, if you don't sleep enough," Saori somewhat scolds Yukari.

"I know, but I can always catch up some sleep inside the tank. It's not like we will need to use the cannon for anything," she says, filling a plastic cup with tea and handing it to Saori.

"Good morning everyone," Hana says as she approaches her friends. Yukari has already poured tea in a fourth plastic cup, so she hands the cup to Miho, who gives it to Hana. "Thanks a lot," she says and takes a small sip.

"Now that everyone has woken up, we can get ready to continue our journey," Miho says to the others. Suddenly, all of the girls hear a faint popping sound coming from outside. "What was that?" Miho asks. Another faint popping sound is heard and the girls, getting curious, exit the building in search of the sound's origin. What they find though, is black smoke rising behind a hill very close to them.

"That is not good," Yukari says in alarm, her face paling a little. Another faint popping sound is heard and another trail of thick, black smoke starts rising in the air.

"What do you mean, Yukari?" Saori asks in confusion.

"These smoke trails have been produced by fire," Yukari starts explaining. "If we combine it with the popping sounds-"

"It would mean that something exploded and caught on fire," Miho finishes her sentence, and Yukari nods grimly. "It could mean that someone is in trouble," she says quickly and turns to face the others. "Saori, go and wake up Mako; tell her to start the engine. Yukari and Hana, pack the equipment in the tank; I'll try and see if there is any town or village in the direction of the smoke," she orders and everyone rushes inside the building.

In less than five minutes, everything had been packed and the tank was already on the road, making its way on the smoke trails at full speed. Miho's upper half stands out of the cupola, looking at the smoke and then at the flapping map she has opened and placed on the cupola's edge. Tracing a straight line from her relative position to where the smoke is, on the map, she finds nothing of importance, no roads, no towns, no nothing. Thinking for a second, she closes the map and looks for a moment at the cloudy sky, before diving back inside the tank.

"OK, listen up girls," she says through the intercom to catch the girls' attention. "The map isn't showing anything that could lead to where the smoke is."

"It could be a small village," Mako suggests. "It would explain why it isn't being shown on the map."

"Maybe there is a dirt road that leads towards the smoke?" Yukari says to Miho, who seems to be thinking.

"Hmm...maybe. But then the question becomes, why would there be an explosion in a rural village?" she wonders aloud.

"Miporin, there is a dirt road on our right!" Saori quickly says. "It might be leading to the smoke!"

"Mako, follow the dirt road!" Miho commands and Mako directs the tank onto the dirt road, which seems to scale the hill, going over the top and descending from the other side. As the tank closes on the hill's top, Miho peeks out of her cupola and upon reaching it, she orders Mako to stop. Raising a pair of binoculars and peering through them, she spots the source of the fire. On a distance of about a kilometer, a huge refinery stands, fire consuming most of its structures. Two huge tanks like spherical structures are ablaze, when they suddenly explode, raining fiery debris in the surrounding woodland, which has already caught fire. The explosion is so big, that Miho can see the shockwave clearly for a few seconds, before it disappears, only a gentle breeze reaching her, along with the sound of the two explosions. _Who would build an oil refinery in the middle of a forest?!_ Miho wonders incredulously in her mind, scanning her immediate environment.

"Did you see that, Miporin?!" she hears Saori shouting in an alarmed voice through the intercom. Miho doesn't respond as her eyes keep scanning the rest of the landscape and find a really roughed up village at the foot of the hill.

"Mako, start descending the road as fast as you can, there is a village at the foot of the hill and it seems to be in trouble!" Miho orders as she ducks inside the tank, and Mako starts following the dirt road. As they reach the village, Miho orders the tank to stop. Looking through the cupola's vision ports, Miho notices that there are only damaged buildings. Some are riddled with bullet holes, other miss entire walls or have collapsed and other seem to be burning.

"What happened here," Saori asks with wide eyes, unable to take in what she is seeing.

"It's like we found ourselves in a warzone," Yukari whispers.

"Something really bad happened here," Hana says slowly, looking at the damages the buildings have.

"Mako, advance slowly. Yukari, get an HE shell ready. Hana, Saori, if you see anything hostile, fire warning shots," Miho orders and the tank starts advancing slowly.

"Wait, we could seriously injure someone if we misfire, or even kill them!" Saori says loudly. Even Hana seems uneasy with the idea of firing the machine gun and the cannon near a human, even if it is for warning purposes. "Wouldn't they get scared just by seeing a tank coming their way?!"

"Whoever raided this village, Saori, isn't going to be one person," Miho explains. "So I doubt they might get scared by a WW2 era tank. They might even try to capture it. Consider this. Would you get approach a dog that keeps barking and showing its teeth, or a dog that just sits on the ground and does nothing?" An eerie silence permeates in the air of the cabin, only the sound of clacking treads and the engine working filling it. As the tank slowly moves between the buildings, the ground starts showing blood stains and even blood pools on it. Noticing that, the girls audibly gulp. Miho scans her surroundings for any signs of life, but finds none.

"Miho, in front of us," Mako says with a slightly trembling voice, and when she looks forward, her heart sinks in her stomach. A woman, who seems to be holding an unconscious girl and a sheathed sword in her hug, appears, slowly limping towards the tank. Her clothes are ripped and bloody and her body has a lot of scratches and bruises. Her bright blonde hair seem to have dirt all over them and be bloody in some areas. The girl she is carrying has long black hair and seems to be a lot better, as her clothes seem fine and her body has only a few scratches at her arms and legs. The sword seems to be a katana with a simple wooden hilt with a red piece of cloth tied around it, sheathed in a black scabbard. Mako slowly approaches the woman, who stops walking, and stops a few meters away from her.

"Yukari, come with me, now!" Miho says quickly and exits the tank, jumping down on the ground and quickly running to the woman, who upon seeing Miho and Yukari approaching her, crumbles to the ground, exposing her bloody and bullet-riddled back. Both Miho and Yukari gasp at the woman's serious injuries, quickly kneeling in front of her. "Yukari, take the girl inside the tank and have her sit with Saori. Also when you come back, bring some gauze and disinfectant, we need to treat her wounds," Miho says with a shaky voice, her hands slightly trembling. She knows that the woman will probably perish, but she holds onto the hope that she can somehow survive her wounds. As Yukari lifts the unconscious girl and quickly moves her to the tank, Miho looks at the woman. "Don't worry, you will be fine," Miho says, even if she knows that things won't go as she hopes, her eyes tearing up a little. The woman looks at her and grabs her right hand, startling Miho a little at her sudden movement. Miho looks at her emerald green eyes, who seem to be slowly getting drained of the life they hold and gulps.

"Please..." the woman croaks, using sheer willpower and her last scraps of strength she has to talk. "Take Yuki...and the...sword with...you." Her grip on Miho's hand starts faltering and her right hand drops on the ground, as her head does too, her eyes becoming unfocused and dull. "Please...I beg you..." she says, before letting her final breath escape her lips. Miho covers her mouth with her left hand, tears rolling across her cheeks.

"Miss Nishizumi!" Yukari shouts as she runs over to Miho. "I've brought the..." she trails off as she sees the woman. "Oh no," she whispers, as tears start forming in her eyes. Even the girls inside the tank start tearing up, with Saori audibly crying.

"Hey, who are you?!" they hear a voice yelling and looking further down on the road, they find two men with assault rifles running to their direction. Seeing this, Miho grabs the sheathed katana and stands up like a spring, grabbing Yukari by the right hand and almost dragging her to the tank.

"Yukari, get inside now!" Miho yells, as a flurry of bullets passes by them, striking the tank and bouncing off the armor. The turret starts rotating and the cannon gets aimed at one of the buildings next to the two hostiles. After a second, a cannon report is heard and the building next to the enemies explodes in pieces, as the HE shell crashes in the wall and detonates. The men fall to the ground to avoid getting hit by the flying debris, before scurrying in the direction they came from. Entering the tank and closing her hatch, Miho takes a moment to catch her breath and calm down, before speaking. "Mako, get us back on the road where the gas station was now, I doubt these guys are alone here!" she says with a panting voice and Mako rotates the tank on the spot and starts heading back from the road they came, while Miho sets the katana next to her seat.

"Thanks for covering us, Hana," Miho says gratefully to her friend.

"It was no problem at all, Miho," Hana answers back with a smile. It seems the shock of getting attacked has somewhat calmed the girls, since they have stopped crying tears.

"How is the girl, Saori?" Miho asks.

"Sh-She is still unconscious," Saori stutters, still affected by the woman's death. "But she seems to be stirring a lot, s-so she will probably wake up soon." Silence fills the cabin, as the tank slowly ascends the hill, the girls not really in the mood to say anything after seeing a woman dying in front of them and getting attacked by unknown men. Saori looks at the unconscious girl with a sad expression, sniffling from time to time, Mako is driving the tank, Hana keeps peering through the gunner's sight, in case anything or anyone else decides to attack them, Yukari just seems to be looking in no particular direction and Miho scans their surroundings through the cupola. By now the sky has been completely covered by dark clouds, an eerie silence filling the air. It's almost like the calm before a storm.

"I don't like it," Miho whispers, getting really unnerved for some reason. "It is too quiet." The tank reaches the top of the hill and starts descending it, following the dirt road back to the normal one. The black-haired girl that sits with Saori groans a little, opening her eyes slowly. Seeing this, Saori turns to Miho.

"Miporin, the girl is waking up!" Saori says urgently and everyone turns to look at the waking girl. Even Mako looks at her momentarily, before turning to look forward. Opening her eyes, the girl looks all around her, slowly at first, then faster and faster as she realizes that she is in an unknown place, with unknown people.

"Wh-Who are you?" she reluctantly asks, her face betraying a scared expression. "A-And where am I?"

"My name is Nishizumi Miho," Miho replies immediately with a warm smile, in order to calm down the girl a little. "These are my friends, Takebe Saori, Reizei Mako, Isuzu Hana and Akiyama Yukari," Miho introduces her friends and they greet the girl. "What's your name?"

"M-My name is..." she pauses for a little bit, pondering if she should tell them her true name or not. The girls don't seem dangerous to her, they actually took the time to introduce themselves, so she decides to tell them the truth. "My name is Konoka Yuki. I'm 14," she says, but then wonders why she even told them her age. "Where am I?" she asks again looking all around her one more time.

"You are inside a tank," Miho answers and the girl looks at Miho with a confused expression, before gasping in surprise.

"You are from Senshadou?!" the girl says cheerfully. "I have heard so many things about it from my grandpa, he even promised me he'd let me go watch a match if I was a good girl," she says and then sheepishly smiles at the others. "That is, if they were any matches happening anymore, ehehehe...THE VILLAGE!" she suddenly yells on top of her lungs and Saori is forced to cover her ears. "The village, we were attacked by some men with guns. M-My mother took me by the hand and...and we started running, but something heavy hit me in the head and everything blacked out," she pauses for a second, an expression of fear and terror forming on her face." Wh-Where is my mother?" she asks in a barely audible voice and the smiles from all the girls instantly vanish. As the tank reaches the main road, Mako stops the tank, waiting for further orders from Miho.

"Your mother..." Miho starts saying slowly, thinking it is better if she tells Yuki her mother's fate, than any of the other girls. As her team's commander, it is the least she can do. "When we entered your village, your mother approached us while carrying you and a sword. Shortly after she collapsed on the ground, so we tried to help her, but..." she pauses a little, taking a deep breath. "she had several gunshot wounds on her back. She died from blood loss, most likely," Miho says and the effects on Yuki are instantaneous.

"N-No, m-m-mom is..." she whispers, tears starting to run across her face. Lightnings start falling on the background and thunder fills the air. "This can't be true! My mother can't be dead!" she cries out in desperation, flailing in Saori's tight hug, who fears Yuki might try to exit the tank and run back to the village, which would be a correct assumption. "Let me go, I need to go back to the village!"

"No!" Saori cries out too, her eyes already shedding tears. "You will die if you go back!" she says at the struggling girl. Suddenly, an explosion is heard from behind the tank, and the tank starts rocking back and forth for a few seconds. The girls cry out in surprise and Miho stands up, partially exiting through the cupola and looking at the back of the tank. From the dirt road they had been driving for the past few minutes, a total of six pickup trucks are driving towards them, their beds full with either people, or a welded HMG. Her eyes widening as much as it is humanly possible, she dives back at the tank and screams through the intercom. "Mako, get us the hell out of here!"

Mako, not questioning her friend's order, rotates the tank left and starts driving as fast as she can, though trying to outrun civilian trucks with a tank is easier said than done. Heavy thuds start pummeling the tank's armor, as the HMGs open fire, but only managing to scratch the paint and dent the spaced armor a little. A few lucky shots hit the fuel cans that are tied at the turret's Schürzen plates, with diesel leaking out of the bullet holes and down the road.

"What is going on, Miss Nishizumi?!" Yukari asks in alarm, as an RPG warhead lands on the road next to the tank, showering it with chunks of broken asphalt.

"We are being pursued by hostile vehicles, probably the same men that attacked Yuki's village!" she says quickly, and another RPG warhead streaks by, missing the cupola by mere centimeters. "Hana, rotate the turret backwards and use the coaxial to scare them. Yukari, be ready to load an HE shell," she commands and both Hana and Yukari do as they told.

"Miporin, what are you doing?!" Saori asks in concern. Yuki is just cowering, hugging Saori tightly, her whole body trembling in fear.

"We need to scare them off, or they will catch up with us! Worst case, they'll get a lucky hit with the RPGs!" The coaxial starts rattling, Hana directing its fire in front of the trucks, careful not to hit them. Although the trucks swerve away from the machine-gun fire, they keep pursuing the Panzer IV, so Miho changes tactics. "Hana, fire a shell, but DO NOT hit them!" she orders and Hana aims the cannon in the space between the trucks. A second later the cannon breach kicks back and an HE shell exits the barrel, passing really close from two of the trucks and harmlessly detonating in the distance. Four of the trucks break hard and swerve violently left and right, but the remaining two keep moving forwards unfazed, slowly reaching the tank. To make matters worse, both of them have a man with an RPG each, meaning that if they come into a certain range, Miho and the others are as good as dead. Before she can utter any orders though, she spots one of the trucks moving next to them and a man aiming an RPG at them. "Maho, stop the tank!" she yells and Mako brakes the tank as hard as she can, the treads grinding and sparking in the asphalt for a few seconds, before completely stopping. The truck continues forward and the man fires the RPG, missing the target and hitting the dirt next to the road, a small explosion throwing dirt everywhere. The truck then drifts to a stop about 7 meters in front of them, and the man with the RPG launcher reloads a new warhead, then aims it at them.

"Miho, behind us!" Hana says, and looking back, Miho finds the second truck stopped, another man aiming an RPG launcher at them. As more adrenaline keeps pumping in everyone's blood stream, Miho finds time slowing down, her senses becoming sharper, her reflexes faster. Her mind starts blurring, instinct taking over and discarding any logical thoughts she might have. The thing with the humans is that, should they get cornered and their lives threatened, they'll do anything to survive, thanks to the instinct of survival. And that's exactly what happens with Miho and the others. As she looks at the gray colored truck, she finds herself uttering something, something she normally wouldn't dare to say...something she will regret for the rest of her life, probably. As time returns to normal, she hears the gun breach kicking back and a split second later the gray truck transforms into an unrecognizable mass of twisted, burning metal, its occupants nowhere to be seen. Widening her eyes in response, she covers her mouth with both hands, as she realizes what she has done. Hana quietly removes her shaky hands away from the gun controls and covers her face with them, tears rolling from her eyes. "H-Hana...I-I'm..." Miho tries to say how really sorry she is for what she has done, but she finds herself unable to utter a single sound.

"Wh-What have I done," Hana whispers in a barely audible voice, completely ignoring Miho. "M-My mother...w-would be ashamed of me."

A powerful explosion shakes violently the whole tank and Mako shouts in alarm. "Miho, we lost the right driving wheel!" Miho looks forwards and finds the other man with the RPG, trying to load another warhead on it as fast as he can.

"Saori, fire the machine-gun now!" Miho yells, crying and sniffling audibly.

"B-But..." Saori stuters, still shocked with what happened moments before.

"Saori, fire the machine-gun now, or we all die!" Miho manages to say, the words almost getting stuck to her throat. Saori wants to argues, but being ordered by her commander and with what has happened till now, any logical thought processing has gone out of the window, so she grabs the bow machine-gun and closes her eyes. "I want to go back home!" she screams and pressing the trigger, she blindly fires at the truck, which quickly gets riddled with bullet holes, along with its occupants, their blood splattering everywhere. After firing for 3 seconds, she lets her hands drop limply to her sides, crying audibly, with Yuki still holding her tight. Miho just feels horrible, the urge to vomit being really strong. She had to order two of her friends to kill humans, when she had no right to do that whatsoever. What would her sister say if she saw her now? What would her mother say? Would they hate her, be disgusted by her? As she starts falling into her own little hole of despair, with Yukari and Mako helplessly looking at the others, not able to do anything, all the girls hear braking sounds and then a male voice shouting.

"Get out of the tank, or we will shoot on sight!"

With the tank being immobilized, and probably surrounded, the girls don't stand a chance. They feel utterly crushed mentally, with what they have done, so they quietly obey and exit the tank, lining in front of its right side. The tank is surrounded by four white pick-up trucks, their beds having welded HMGs on them, which no one is manning right now. The tank's armor and Schürzen plates have various degrees of dents, with the plates on the right front of the hull, being really twisted from the RPG warhead that hit the right driving wheel. Lots of metal shrapnel lie on the ground, some small, other bigger. In front of the girls stand five men, dressed in casual clothes and holding various weapons, like assault rifles and pistols.

"How many did we lose?" a well-built man, presumably their leader, asks one of the other men.

"4 people and 2 trucks," he says in a low voice, as to not be heard by the girls, who look at the men uneasily, wondering what will happen to them.

"My God, and it must have been the first time they killed anyone, judging by their expressions and reactions," the well-built man says. "They could become quite deadly in the future."

"If we can make them to join us, they could be very useful when raiding more secure places," the man says to his leader.

"Boss, the tank is stuffed with supplies!" another man says, standing at the engine bay and checking the metal boxes welded at the back of the turret's spaced armor.

"OK, take 1 more guy with you and start transferring the supplies," he answers back, before turning to face the man that he was talking first. "No, this is too risky. Do you see the girl with the bright green eyes and black hair?" he says and points at Yuki, who has an expression that is a mix of fear and hatred, glaring at the bandits with a lot of killing intent. "She is from the village we raided. We cannot take her with us."

"Then why don't we kill her and take the other girls?"

"Because if we kill her, the other girls obviously won't come with us willingly, idiot!" he scowls at his subordinate's lack of thinking. "Anyway, you two," he says at the guys that stand by idly, waiting for orders. "Kill the girls," he says in an emotionless tone. "And make it fast, we don't have a lot of time." He turns to face the girls, who look at him wide-eyed, their bodies shaking with fear. "Consider this a merciful death. If I was to take you back to camp, even as new recruits, worse things could happen."

"I'm gonna kill you!" Yuki suddenly screams and runs towards the well-built man, trying to punch him. The man catches Yuki's fist with his left hand and grabs her by the throat with his right, lifting her in his eye level. Yuki tries to free herself from the man's grip, but her strength is nowhere near enough to achieve this.

"Leave her alone!" Saori shouts and would have probably run to her aid, if it weren't for the two men that aim at the girls with their weapons.

Ignoring Saori's shout, he turns to look at Yuki. More lightnings start hitting the ground, thunder resounding louder and louder in the air. Rain starts falling, lightly at first, getting heavier as time passes. "A miracle would need to happen for you to kill me in your current predicament."

Yuki just spits on his face, which the man doesn't take kindly." It's your funeral," he says as he retrieves his pistol from a holster tied in his left thigh. The men that are aiming their guns on the girls get ready to fire too, though the girls don't flinch or cower away. Their bodies stop trembling and their faces become neutral. They just keep staring at the bandits, like they have already accepted their fate, something the bandits find slightly unnerving.

 _Is that it?_ Miho thinks sadly, as she prepares herself for the inevitable ending that is approaching her. _Is this how things end? With me and my friends getting killed by bandits?_ She looks at the distance, observing the lightnings that fall in the background, the rain pouring heavily down on earth. Despite the bad weather, she finds its chaotic nature charming, calming, serene. She starts feeling a weird emotion bubbling inside her, something like anger, but more...dangerous. _I refuse to accept this,_ she says in her mind, clenching her hands to fists. _Did we survive all the chaos, just to die in the middle of nowhere?_ Her expression changes from a neutral one, to one of anger. _Did I ordered my friends to taint their hands with human blood, and the sacrifice they made will go to waste?!_ She shouts in her mind. The man places the gun on Yuki's head, who flails her body as much as she can in a desperate attempt to free herself. _ **I can't accept this!**_ She roars mentally, clenching her fists as hard as she can, adrenaline entering her blood stream once more. The emotion she feels bubbling inside her becomes stronger and stronger, threatening to take control of her reasoning. _**"I won't accept this!"** _ she roars on top of her lungs, and everyone turns to look at her. Moments later, the report of a sniper rifle echoes in the air, barely getting drowned by the roaring thunder. The man that was on top of the tank, moving its supplies, falls to the ground, a single bullet hole at the side of his head.

"Sniper!" one of the bandits yells and the two bandits that are aiming their guns at the girls fall to the ground, one shot killing them both. As the rest of the girls hit the ground, covering their heads with their arms, Miho has only one thought occupying her mind: Save Yuki. So, stooping down for only a moment, she grabs a sizable metal piece of shrapnel and sprints towards the well-built man. Seeing her, the man lets Yuki fall to the ground and aims his pistol at Miho, but hesitates to fire for a moment. Her eyes are cold, calculating, emotionless. It's as if she is hunting her prey, ready to strike. Her eyes change color from light brown to red for just a fraction of a second and seeing this, the man fires his pistol and the bullet hits her right forearm, cleanly passing through it and somehow missing the bone. Miho flinches in response, but doesn't stop sprinting, only tightening her grip on the shrapnel piece, causing her hand to bleed lightly. Reaching the man, before he can fire a second bullet, she thrusts the shrapnel on his throat, piercing all the way to his spine. The man lets his pistol slip out of his hand, falling to the ground and making gurgling noises, before stopping his movements altogether. Miho can feel her wound on her hand starting to burn like fire, her head becoming dizzy and her vision blurry. Falling to the ground, her eyelids start closing, becoming exponentially difficult to even think. She can hear a lot of different voices and shouts jumbling together, but she can't understand what they are saying. The last thing she hears is a request for MEDIVAC and someone yelling her name.

* * *

"We were extremely lucky. One of Blackout's teams was returning to base after a mission, when they stumbled upon us and saved us. After that, we got transferred at one of Blackout's bases, before being transfered to the main one," she finishes her story and just in time too, as the pilot says through the intercom that they are landing in 30 seconds.

"Wow..Katyusha is in awe of you and your comrades," Katyusha says in awe, amazed by Miho's story, having new-found respect for all the girls of the Anglerfish team. On the other hand, Maho can feel her stomach churning, feeling really sad for what her younger sister had to go through, just to survive, and angry with herself for not being there to support her when she needed it the most. It feels like her heart has broken a little after what she has heard. Though one question lingers on her mind. Why did Miho stay in Blackout? Why did she become a mercenary? Before she can ask her, the pilot speaks through the intercom.

"We have arrived at the forward HQ," he says, as the helicopter touches down and shakes gently for a moment.

"Guess that's our stop," Miho says, before walking towards the cabin's door and sliding it open.

* * *

 **A/N: Finally rewrote the chapter and it is a lot bigger than the original.** **A** **nyway, a** **s always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and** **there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**


	8. Chapter 8: Preparations

**The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 8: Preparations**

* * *

Sliding the cabin's door open, Miho steps out of the helicopter, followed closely by her team, Maho, Nonna and Katyusha, who is now on top of Nonna's shoulders.

"I wish the seats were a bit more comfortable," Saori groans as she stretches her legs a little, feeling a little sore.

"It is a military helicopter, after all. Luxury isn't top priority for the designers," Mako says, having woken up from the landing's shaking.

"So, this is from where we will be attacking?" Katyusha asks as she gazes at the base that had been set up to function as Blackout's forward HQ for the final phase of Operation Downfall.

Looking at the base, which is set up about 100 meters away from the girls, Miho can clearly see a lot of tents and an open space that is full of tanks, some of which are really familiar to her. "Yes. If I remember correctly, we must be about 10 to 15 kilometers away from the enemy's stronghold," Miho answers Katyusha's question. "Are you sure you want to participate?" Miho asks suddenly, which greatly surprises Katyusha, Nonna and Maho, albeit only Pravda's commander shows it.

"Of course! These wretches dared to make Pravda their enemy, so they will be crushed by our might, like insects under a boot!" Katyusha angrily says, raising her left hand and shaking it a little.

"We were asked to participate because Blackout can't allocate enough units to storm both potential targets. It would be bad if their leaders were allowed to escape and rebuild their organization again," Maho says with a stoic expression. "Also, anyone who is participating today, is here of their own volition." Maho adds.

"Just making sure," Miho says, sighing internally. She would like if the girls wouldn't participate in this battle, but she can't force them to do so. They chose this, but then again...

"I told you, no means no!" she hears a voice yelling and everyone turns to look at some approaching figures.

"I couldn't care less about your opinion, Elpida," a blonde girl says at a taller blonde girl, with a red-haired girl standing between them.

"What's going on?" Saori asks two boys that seem to be walking a bit faster than the others, reaching Miho and her friends first.

"You know, Odysseus and Assam are fighting...again," Tyler says, having a grumpy expression.

"They have been yelling at each other the whole flight," Reiji adds. "Well, Odysseus has been yelling, Assam hasn't raised her voice that much," he corrects himself.

"What for?" Miho inquires, her curiosity growing slightly.

"Assam said that Annabelle would be safer in the Churchill, since it is a heavy tank, so she should be its driver for the duration of this mission," Tyler answers, before adding. "Assam also said that Odysseus is a really reckless individual, so leaving Annabelle with her would be improper of her."

"Which caused our commander to go ballistic," Reiji sighs, slowly shaking his head.

"Both of you, stop arguing this instant!" Annabelle shouts and both Assam and Odysseus fall silent. "I'm sorry Assam, but I'll have to decline your offer. Also, I don't know how to drive the Churchill, which is a potential hazard for the whole crew." Odysseus is about to say something at Assam, but she receives a death glare from Annabelle, shutting her up for good. "I'm sorry for this, girls," Annabelle apologizes to the others with a smile, having finally reached them. "How was your flight? I hope it was less noisy than ours," she briefly glares at Assam and Odysseus, with Assam looking away in embarrassment for her unsightly behavior and Odysseus just looking away with a pout, crossing her arms under her chest.

"It was fine," Hana smiles.

"Katyusha was recounting grand tales of Pravda's might against those who dared to oppose us!" Katyusha says in a suprrior tone.

"Hey, shrimp, you still haven't thanked us for saving you!" Odysseus says with an irritated expression, though she probably wants to do something other than just standing around doing nothing, like creating trouble.

"How dare you speak like that to the Mighty Katyusha?!" Katyusha angrily shouts, pointing a finger at Odysseus. "You should feel honored to have saved me. In fact, _YOU_ should be thanking me for allowing you to save me," she says in an arrogant voice.

"Technically, we saved you," Reiji says, but he gets ignored.

"Wow, such ego, much arrogance," Tyler whispers to Reiji and they both start snickering.

"Odysseus, that's enough," Annabelle glares at her friend and commander, but when Odysseus is bored, she'll raise hell to find something entertaining to do.

"Oh mighty empress, Katyusha the Great, I am honored to have been graced with the opportunity to save you," Odysseus says in a mocking tone full of sarcasm, going as far as to perform a curtsy, which has the desired effect of infuriating Katyusha.

"I will not tolerate your childish act, anymore!" Katyusha says in a...childish manner. "I'll have you bow before me and ask for forgiveness! Nonna, make her bow!" Katyusha orders Nonna, and Nonna puts Katyusha down on the ground, before taking an intimidating step towards Odysseus.

"Whatever, I think it's time for my morning run!" she waves excitedly to the girls as she slowly walks away from her group.

"But you never do morning runs," Reiji says with a slight amusement, while Tyler tries to stifle his chuckling, both knowing well enough what is about to happen.

"Then it is the perfect time to start! Au revoir, everyone!" she waves as she starts running, with Nonna following (more like hunting) closely behind her.

"Run Forest, run!" Tyler shouts at the fleeing figure of his commander, and both he and Reiji burst out in laughter.

Everyone has a dumbfounded expression on their faces, trying to understand what just happened. "That idiot!" Annabelle groans. "Can't she stand in one place without doing anything stupid for more than a second?" she groans, before turning to face the girls. "I'm really sorry for my commander's behavior," Annabelle apologizes.

"This is exactly why I can't let you be with her, Lady Annabelle," Assam says.

"Not now, Assam," she responds to Assam. "Reiji, Tyler, come with me. We need to make sure our commander won't do anything even stupider," she sighs, before walking towards the direction Odysseus run off.

"Aye-Aye, Captain," Tyler says jokingly, before waving goodbye at the girls and following Annabelle.

"Have a nice day, everyone," Reiji says, before he, too, follows Annabelle.

"I can't believe how this girl made it in St. Gloriana. Maybe Anchovy was right and Elpida did manage to forge her admittance papers," she mutters to herself.

"Wait, this girl is a student from St. Gloriana?" Katyusha gawks at Assam and even Maho looks at her in surprise, though barely showing it on her face. "Aren't your school supposed to be all about prestige and elegance and be...ladylike and stuff like that?" Katyusha asks Assam. "Because this girl, who is supposed to be a commander, definitely wouldn't get accepted in your school."

"Is that true?" Maho whispers at Miho, who silently nods, listening to the conversation between Katyusha and Assam.

"Excuse me?" a female voice calls to the group, and everyone turns around to find a woman with light brown eyes and hair, wearing a black uniform and holding a clipboard. "I'm looking for some students from the carriers that should have arrived with the Anglerfish and Antelope team," she says with a polite smile.

"Is there something that needs our attention?" Maho asks the woman.

"I was sent to escort you to the command center," he says at Maho, then turns and looks at Miho. "Miss Nishizumi Miho, you and your team will need first of all to go to the supply depot to receive some new equipment; a person from the logistics department will escort you there," she informs Miho and her friends. "After that, you are to report to the command center for the briefing." Looking around the group a little, the woman develops a confused expression. "Where is the commander of the Antelope team? I am supposed to escort her too."

"Don't worry about her, I am sure she will be there... One way or another," Assam says and everyone stays silent for a second.

"R-Right," the woman responds. "Then, if you would follow me please," the woman says.

"I'll see you later, Miho," Maho tells her sister, before following the others. Now, only the Anglerfish team remains in the space that is used as a helipad, the helicopter pilots long gone from their vehicles.

"I wonder what new equipment they will give us!" Yukari says excitedly, bouncing up and down. "Maybe it will be new guns? No, maybe a cool upgrade to our tank, or even a new tank!"

"Yukari, please calm down," Miho says at her friend, so Yukari stops bouncing...at least for now.

"I, too, wonder what new equipment they want to allocate us," Hana admits. "It might be something Blackout recently made."

"I hope it is something that will make Mako forget her fear of heights," Saori says and Mako immediately responds.

"What you seek already exists, and it is called sleep," Mako responds with her usual sleepy voice. "So you should let me sleep more, preferably in the mornings."

"Not happening," Saori immediately shuts down Mako's clever suggestion.

"Miho!" a voice suddenly yells and Miho can feel something hitting her from behind, two arms wrapping around her waist. The force of the hit threatens to throw her down on the ground, but Miho is barely able to remain standing. Looking back, she spots a 16 years old girl with long black hair, who is slightly shorter than her, hugging her from behind, her bright green eyes looking at her own light brown with excitement.

"How have you been, Yuki?" Miho smiles at the young girl, slightly patting her head.

"I missed you so much! I haven't seen you in a month!" Yuki says in excitement, hugging Miho tighter. "Where have you been? I wanted to see you!"

"Sorry Yuki, but we were very busy," Miho apologizes.

"It's okay, I understand," Yuki responds, releasing Miho from her hug.

"Hey, don't we get a hug, too?" Saori complains, pouting a little at Yuki, so the girl goes and hugs her.

"Sorry, Saori," she says and then grins a little, "or should I say, Mom?"

"Yuki! I-I told you not to call me that!" Saori stutters, her cheeks flushing a little in embarrassment.

"Why? You were the one who took care of me the first few months, taught me how to cook, clean and other things," she answers back in a sincere tone, looking at Saori with puppy eyes. "Can't I call you Mom? Please?"

"B-But..." Saori stutters a little as she finds herself conflicted between denying or granting Yuki's request, but Yuki's gaze slowly but steadily tips the balance in her favor. "Fine, Fine, you can call me Mom," Saori relents under Yuki's puppy eyes. "I'm really going to regret this," she mutters to herself, but smiles anyways.

"Thanks Mom!" Yuki says, causing Saori's cheeks to turn red in embarrassment again. Releasing Saori, she goes and hugs Mako.

"How have you been, kiddo?" Mako asks with a smile, ruffling Yuki's hair a little.

"Hey, stop it!" Yuki playfully laughs, as she tries to stop Mako's hands from further messing her hair. After fixing them, she goes and hugs Hana.

"You won't believe what I found a couple days ago in the forest near the base!" she says excitedly at Hana, who smiles at her.

"What did you find?" Hana asks.

"I found a clearing that was full of Lunar Tears!" she almost shouts from her excitement, and even Hana's eyes seem to be lighting up a little.

"That's wonderful!" she says in a delighted tone. "Lunar Tears are really rare."

"I know, right? Can we go at night to see them glow?!" she asks with hopeful eyes.

"Sure, it would be really nice," Hana responds and Yuki starts bouncing up and down like Yukari was doing a few minutes ago.

"Thank you very much!" Yuki says joyfully.

"Hey Yuki, how have the exercises been going?" Yukari asks the girl with a grin and Yuki turns her head to face her, having a grin of her own.

"Very good. I can easily lift 10 kilograms with each hand," she grins back.

"Impressive," Yukari answers back, "but you will need to do a lot better, if you want to surpass me."

"It shouldn't take too much time," she says, releasing Hana from her hug and facing Yukari with her whole body. "Miho will be mine in the end," she declares.

"We'll see about that," Yukari responds. Both girls grin at each other, sparks flying out of their eyes and colliding mid-air.

"You know...I'm here too," Miho says at both girls with an awkward smile. "Anyway, did they send you to escort us on the supply depot?" she asks Yuki.

"Ah, yes!" she exclaims, remembering why she came here in the first place. "Follow me!" she says, as she starts leading the girls to the supply depot.

As they slowly make their way towards the supply depot, which is at the edge of the base, near their position, Yuki turns to face the girls, starting to walk backwards. "I have a surprise for you!" she says with anticipation, barely able to contain her excitement at what she is about to tell the girls.

"A surprise?" Saori asks, and everyone looks at Yuki with curiosity. Yuki eagerly nods her head.

"Yes! I think you will really like it!" she answers back.

"What is it, then?" Miho smiles at the black haired girl.

"I passed the test that is needed to receive infantry training!" she says cheerfully to the girls, bouncing up and down a little. "I begin next week! If everything goes well I should be able to transfer departments and..." she trails off as she sees the faces the girls have.

None of them shares her enthusiasm. Instead, they all have faces full of concern and worry.

"Did...did I say something bad?" she asks slowly, her voice filled with fear, seeing the gloomy expressions the girls have.

"No, no, you didn't say anything bad," Miho quickly reassures her with a smile. "It's just that..."

"We are really happy you passed the test and can receive infantry training, but you shouldn't change departments," Hana says in a calm voice, her eyes etched with sadness.

"But why?" Yuki asks loudly, stopping dead on her tracks. The girls too stop walking, standing a few meters away from her. "If I changed departments and then worked as a soldier, then I could-"

"But it is dangerous!" Saori almost shouts at Yuki. Since they are close in the base, a few people start looking at their direction with interest, though they only spare one or two seconds, before continuing with their jobs. "Being on the battlefield isn't an easy thing! What if you get injured, or worse!?" Tears start forming on Saori's eyes, her mind already wandering into possibilities that are best left untouched. "You wouldn't be the only one affected by it!"

"But-"

"She is right, you know," Miho says slowly. "Your actions don't affect only yourself, but also those around you. How do you think your friends would react if they learned you got injured, or that you died? How do you think _WE_ would react?" Yuki just stares at Miho. She never gave it any thought, really. Her mind starts wondering what if she got injured, if she died? How the others would react. She starts feeling butterflies in her stomach, the answers her brain gives her back making her shiver unconsciously. "And let me ask you another question," Miho says with a very serious and severe expression, one that almost resembles her mother's. "Are you prepared to kill? To end lives? To stain your hands with other people's blood?"

Yuki can feel her blood freezing, her body trembling slightly from the pressure she feels. "I-I..." she stutters, her mind trying to find an answer to Miho's question. If in her weapon's sight was an enemy, would she pull the trigger? Killing to protect something or someone is one thing, but...killing because it is your job to kill is a lot different...and a lot more difficult for a person to justify that action. "I am," she answers hesitantly, not being entirely sure herself.

"Yuki! You should never kill someone!" Saori shouts at the young girl, who takes a step back. "Killing is bad!"

"Then why are you killing people, huh!?" Yuki shouts back like a rebellious teenager, and Saori just stares at her. "Hell, even now, you are preparing to go and kill people! If it is so bad, why are you still doing it!?"

"Because we don't have a choice," Mako bluntly answers, looking Yuki directly in the eyes. Any sleepiness she might have been showing before, is now gone, her expression full of seriousness. "When we joined Blackout, they gave us two options; either this, or leave the base. You on the other hand, you had a choice to avoid it."

"But the reason I want to change departments is because I want to protect Blackout!" she snaps back at the girls. "I want to be able to defend my home, not cower behind a desk, praying a stray bullet or shell won't hit me!" Lowering her head, her hair cover her eyes a little. "I lost my home once...I don't want to lose it again," she whispers to herself.

"Yuki," Miho says softly, walking in front of her and placing her hands on her shoulders. "We don't have a problem with you taking the training. We just..."

"Are afraid of you changing to the Infantry department," Yukari says with surprising maturity. "Not only because you might get hurt, or die...but because it could really scar you mentally. Killing someone...isn't as easy as you think. Do you remember how we all met you?" she asks and Yuki raises her head to look at her, nodding reluctantly. "Do you think the girls have forgotten what they had to do back then? Even if it was to protect us, to keep us alive...it hurt them. It still hurts them. Even I and Mako were scarred by it, because we couldn't do anything at that time." Yuki wants to say something, but the sadden looks the girls have developed, make her words get stuck in her throat. "Every time we have to pull a trigger, unpleasant memories resurface. _ALWAYS_."

"I don't care!" she yells and pushes Miho's hands away from her body. She feels awful for doing this, but she also feels angry and frustrated. "I will do whatever I want!" she yells even louder and runs away from the girls, towards the base.

"Yuki, wait!" Saori shouts and starts running behind her, but as she passes next to Miho, Miho grabs her right forearm to stop her.

"Let her be, Saori," Miho slowly shakes her head to indicate at her friend not to run after Yuki. "Give her some time to calm down and think for herself. She is a teenager after all, so it's only reasonable she would act first, rather than think," Miho smiles warmly to Saori, who seems to have calmed down somewhat from her friend's words and warm smile.

"Y-You are right...Sorry," Saori apologizes with a saddened expression.

"There is no need to apologize; you did nothing wrong," she says with an understanding tone, before turning to the rest of the girls. "Come on, we need to find the supply depot." And with that, the girls continue walking towards the base, in search of the supply depot, though the air around them is...not that cheerful, to say the least.

* * *

In a quiet and remote part of the base, behind some crates stacked upon each other, sits a young girl with black hair, gazing the ground between her legs with her bright green eyes. She just sits there, looking at the ground, lost in thought. Why did she yelled at them? Why did she felt so angry suddenly?

Maybe she overreacted...scratch that, she did overreact. The girls were just worried about her. They didn't mean anything bad. They are older, so they know how the world works a lot better.

Yet...she didn't want to accept that, she still doesn't want to. But now that she has cooled down a bit and thought about what the girls told her...they are absolutely right. She never had thought about the consequences of her actions, what they could mean in the bigger picture, who they could affect and how much. But now that she had time to think to herself...

The sadness she could create if she got injured or died, the grief and sorrow her friends would feel...the tears Miho would shed... It makes her sick to her stomach. It makes her feel angry, infuriated with herself. How could she be so stupid, how could she disregard the feelings of the others!

"I just want to be able to protect my new home... I don't want to lose it," she whispers, a few tears forming on her eyes. "I want to protect my friends. I want to protect the girls, like they protected me," she says and grits her teeth in frustration.

When her village had been attacked, she felt so powerless against the bandits. She had lost everyone so quickly... She wanted to tell her parents so many things, her parents wanted to tell her many things too...but the last things she ever heard from them was to run for her life, before everything blacked out. She didn't even get to see her parents' bodies, which probably became food for the wolves, if they didn't rot out in the open first. Why does she have to be powerless every time? Why isn't she allowed to protect what she holds dear in her heart?!

Feeling a warmth in the back of her right hand, she raises her right arm, and looks at the back of it. On it, a strange symbol glows in a bright golden color. It is a circle that has three prongs intersecting it, their ends forming a pentagon at the center of the circle. "Maybe they are right," she mutters, and a smile slowly forms on her face. "But with this...I can protect everyone. My home, my friends, the girls, Miho," she stands up and the symbol, that looks more like a rune, starts glowing even brighter. "With this power, I can protect them without putting myself in danger, without being scared of any consequences."

Clenching her right hand like she is holding something, a katana with a simple wooden hilt appears, a red piece of cloth tied in it that floats in the air like it is in water. The blade, despite being jet black in color, glistens under the morning sun. "With this blade, I can achieve my desires." She looks at the blade with a sad expression, one word coming to her mind.

 _Mother_ , she thinks and as if the sword understood her, the blade pulses with black energy for a second. Releasing her grip, the weapon vanishes in thin air and Yuki starts walking towards the Logistics building, to report for any other duty she might be needed for.

* * *

After Yuki had practically run away from them, the girls went to the base and started searching for the supply depot they were supposed to be escorted. Thankfully, the depot was close by and they only spent about 5 minutes of searching, before finding it.

Approaching the supply depot, which was a huge room made out of prefabricated walls and a roof, one of the two guards, that stand in front of the door to enter the depot, raises his hand to signal the girls to stop walking. "State your name and business, please," he says in a neutral voice, eyeing the girls with a slight suspicion.

"Nishizumi Miho, leader of squad 59," she says, saluting the two guards. "Me and my squad were informed that our presence was required on the supply depot to acquire new equipment."

"We were informed that a personnel from the logistics department would escort you here," the guard says, eyeing the rest of Miho's team. "Is any of the girls that person?"

"The person tasked with escorting us here had some urgent business to attend to, so she left the moment we found the supply depot," Miho lies, not wanting for Yuki to get in trouble.

"Hey, don't these girls look familiar to you?" the second guard leans in and whispers at the first guard's ear.

Taking a better look, the first guard's eyes almost pop out of their sockets, as he realizes who the girls are. _Shit, they are the Black Wolves!_ he cries out inside his mind _. I hope I wasn't disrespectful towards them or anything, I was just doing my job!_

"Is everything alright, sir?" Miho asks in concern, seeing the man is sweating profusely.

"Ah, y-yes, everything is alright! Then you are clear to enter", he says and salutes the girls, before taking a step sideways to make way for them. The girls salute back and enter the depot. After the door behind him clicks closed, the man audibly sighs, wiping some of the sweat from his forehead. "That was scary."

"What came over you all of a sudden?" the second guard asks his fellow soldier, seeing his scared expression.

"Dude, these girls were the Black Wolves!" he says incredulously at the other guard, whose body stiffens upon hearing the name. "Who knows what would have happened, if they had been offended."

"Come on man, they are girls," the second guard tries to reassure the first guard, though it is more like he tries to reassure himself nothing bad will happen. "They can't be that scary."

"Have you heard the rumors about them?" the first guard says back and a brief silence ensues.

"Point taken," the second guard curtly answers back, and both soldiers resume their guarding duty.

* * *

Entering the supply depot, the girls find themselves being surrounded by boxes, stacked on each other and creating towers of various heights. Also, the towers of boxes are placed next to each other, creating a literal maze on the fairly large building.

"This is like a maze," Saori says as she scans her surroundings, seeing only boxes upon boxes of various stuff.

"This is awesome! I wonder if all these boxes hold new equipment!" Yukari squeals and tries to run towards a random box, in order to peek inside it, but gets stopped by Miho.

"We have a job to do first, Yukari," Miho sighs as she holds Yukari by the back of her uniform, making sure she won't run anywhere. "You can look at the boxes all you want after we finish."

"I wonder if someone is supposed to meet us here," Hana wonders aloud. "Or are we supposed to find this new equipment on our own?"

"Maybe we are. Or we are supposed to be lost in this maze of boxes, damned to wander around aimlessly for eternity," Mako says and she starts trembling, though she keeps her usual sleepy expression...for a moment.

"Mako, do you feel cold?" Saori asks in concern, seeing her trembling body, and everyone turns to look at her.

"G-G-G-G-G-Ghost!" she stutters, raising a trembling hand and pointing beyond Miho, her face paling and sweating a lot.

Everyone turns around to look at the direction of where Mako is pointing, and each and every one of the girls can feel their blood freezing. In front of them stands a figure that is a little taller than Miho, wears the standard Blackout uniform along with a helmet, and judging by the body proportions, is probably a girl. What has scared the girls out of their wits, though, is the gas mask the female figure wears, its tinted glass that covers the eyes making the figure seem ominous, soulless. Combine it with the audible heavy breathing that the figure produces and the fact that the temperature seems to have fallen a degree or two, it really is like a ghost has suddenly appear.

 _"Are you the Black Wolves?_ " the figure asks, her voice sounding muffled through the mask.

 ** _*THUD*_**

Removing the gas mask, the girls find the face of a young woman who is no older than 24, her light black eyes gazing back at them with a confused expression. "Is your friend alright?" she asks as she points back at Mako.

Everyone looks back, only to find a petrified Mako lying on the floor, her face as white as fresh snow and her eyes looking at the ceiling, where the fluorescent light bulbs that light the depot, hang from.

"Mako, get up from the ground right now, you'll get your uniform dirty!" Saori scolds Mako, as she goes besides her to help her stand up.

"Y-Yes, she is fine. She just gets scared easily," Miho smiles at the woman in front of her. "Anyway, we were called here to receive new equipment."

"Ah, yes!" the woman says in revelation, as if the answers for the mysteries of the cosmos were suddenly in front of her. "Please, follow me!" she says and starts heading deeper in the box maze. Having no other option, the girls start following her, passing between stacks of boxes, until they come across a cleared area that seems to be located at the middle of the building. "Please wait here; I'll bring your new equipment immediately," the woman says and suddenly disappears behind some stacks of boxes.

"And thus, the maze claimed another lost soul, her body never to be seen again," Mako jokes, trying to lighten the mood a little.

"I wonder what they will give us," Yukari exclaims in anticipation, starting to tremble a little from excitement. "Maybe it will be a new gun, or a super cool uniform that let us cloak!"

"I think...that's at least 70 years in the future," Miho smiles awkwardly at her friend.

"It might be equipment for the tank?" Hana suggests. "Though it would have been sent at the engineers in the Motor Pool most likely, if that was the case."

"Whatever the case, I bet we are the Guinea pigs, testing a prototype one of the mad scientists that inhabit Blackout's R&D department made," Mako says with a seriously sleepy expression.

"Why are you so distraught of anything new?" Saori asks Mako.

"It's called being cautious," Mako answers back.

"Sorry for the wait!" the woman's voice is heard directly behind Mako, and Mako jumps in the air like a scared cat, landing on Saori, who is barely able to both catch the flying Mako and keep her balance. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," she apologizes, looking at Mako with a sheepish smile. Walking to a nearby crater, she puts on top of it a black bulletproof vest, which looks just a tad bit thicker than the one the girls currently wear. "This is one of the new toys you will receive," the woman says as she looks at the girls. "The guys from R&D call it "Dragon's Armor" or something stupid like that, bunch of nerds," she murmurs that last part. "but, the note they gave me states the vest should be able to stop a knife from passing through it, and even a shot from a revolver at point blank range. Since the vest is still a prototype and pretty costly to make, it has been issued only to elite squads. I'll go get some for the rest of you, too," she says and vanishes into the maze of boxes once again.

Picking the vest up, Miho starts inspecting it. "It seems to be the same weight as the one we are wearing," she muses, examining the vest carefully. "It is a little thicker than our current vests, but it shouldn't restrict our movements more." Looking at it one last time, she puts it on top of the box, then proceeds to remove the vest she is currently wearing and puts it next to the new one. Picking up the new one, she puts it on and turns to face the girls.

"How do I look?" she asks and spins around herself once.

"It seems the same as the previous one," Saori says, looking at Miho's new vest. "Though the extra pockets for magazines could be troublesome inside the tank."

"As long as you don't put any magazines in them, you should be fine," Mako says to Saori, who turns around and sticks her tongue out to her.

"It also feels slightly heavier," Miho says as she jumps lightly a few times, before bending over to see how flexible the vest is. "and the flexibility seems to be marginally worse than the previous vest."

"The vests seem to be made separately for each squad," Hana says and points at the top center area of the vest. There, the head of a wolf that is howling is imprinted, with white outlines and black fur. Miho runs her fingers over it for a second, feeling the ruggedness of the stitched emblem.

"Even though I don't like our squad's name, I have to admit the emblem looks cool," Saori admits, staring intently at the emblem. "Maybe this will make me more attractive," she mutters.

"Hey girls, brought you your gifts!" the woman that had vanished says, appearing from behind some boxes, holding 4 vests on her hands. Handing a vest on each girl, she then approaches a wooden crate that has a crowbar standing beside it. "By the way, the guys on the R&D said they would appreciate it, if you could gather some performance data when out on the battlefield." Picking up the crowbar, she starts prying open the crate in front of her. The girls look at her with an incredulous expression for a moment.

"Are you serious!? How are we supposed to test them out there?" Saori asks the woman while removing her current vest to put on the new one, but she gets no answer back.

"I don't think any one of us is in the mood to get shot or stabbed," Mako says dryly, putting her own vest on.

Opening the crate, the woman puts the lid and the crowbar next to her on the ground and retrieves a shell from inside it. Yukari's eyes widen in excitement and before the woman can say a word, Yukari is already in front of her, holding the shell she retrieved from the crate mere moments ago.

"Ohhhh, I have never seen a shell like this!" Yukari says excitedly as she marvels at the shell, examining it as best as she can. The shell looks like a standard HE shell, but it feels a lot more...fragile and like it is full of a liquid. The tip of it is orange, and two orange lines run from it till the bottom. "What is it?" she asks the woman. By now, the rest of the girls have gathered around Yukari and look at the shell she is holding.

"This is something the guys in R&D made a couple days ago. It is called a Napalm shell," she explains and upon hearing the name, the girls adopt a serious expression on their faces. "As the name suggests, the shell explodes upon contact with a surface and will throw napalm at a five-meter radius. As you understand, this shell is perfect against personnel, but useless against armored targets."

"This is awful," Hana says, gazing at the shell solemnly. "Even the enemy doesn't deserve such a fate."

"Yeah...burning to death is just..." Saori trails off, grimacing at the thought of someone burning. The girls had seen their fair share of people burning during missions, but it didn't mean it had gotten any easier with each time.

"The mood sure got gloomy," the woman comments, seeing the stares of the girls as they gaze on the shell. "Anyway, my job is done here. For your weapons, check the crate that is marked with gray stripes," she says and points at a crate behind the girls. After that, she wears her gas mask and disappears behind some stacked crates once again.

"And thus, the evil ghost disappeared once more, ready to claim her next victim's soul, trying to sate her never-ending hunger," Mako jokes once more to lighten the mood and all the girls giggle at her remark.

"OK girls, listen up," Miho says. "Get your gear ready and then help Yukari to transfer 10 of the new shells at the tank. Swipe them with 5 HE and 5 APDSFS. I'll be going to the command center for the mission's briefing."

"Yes!" the girls respond to her. Before leaving the supply depot, she approaches the gray striped crate and retrieves a Glock-34, along with two magazines of ammunition. Exiting the supply depot, she starts making her way towards the command center. She is actually excited, since she will see all of her friends from the other carriers after so long; 2 whole years have passed since the last time she saw them. She hopes that everyone is fine and none of them had to go through terrible things, however unlikely that possibility might be. She starts wondering if Koume will be here, secretly hoping she won't be. Her instincts tell her this battle is going to be a bloody one, for both sides. The thought of her friends dying...it is sickening. She can only hope that they won't be the case.

"Hope, huh?" she mutters to herself, her thoughts drifting to her sister. She can still remember the sad expression she had in the helicopter. Even if she can hide her feelings from the others, Miho can always see them. She is her younger sister after all. Maho probably hoped she didn't have to kill, in order to survive...she still doesn't want to believe it, but time moves only forward, never backwards. She'll come to terms with it, one day. Because this is the cruel truth of the world they live in.

"Oh sister, you must have gone through a lot of hardships too," Miho murmurs. Wanting to think of something less depressing, she starts looking around her, lazily gazing at the passing personnel or the tents the base has. Entering the Motor Pool, which was just a huge dirt lot for the different vehicles to be parked and serviced, she starts scanning the vehicles, noticing some that she has never seen before, colored black to signify they belong to Blackout.

 _These must be the new prototypes Yukari has been hearing about back at main base. I wonder, where does Blackout find the resources to build and maintain such complex and expensive machines,_ she thinks, now gazing at a Type-10. How Blackout came in possession of these MBTs, since they were supposed to be in service only in the JGSDF, now that's a mystery she'd like to know the answer to. As she moves deeper in the Motor Pool, she starts seeing more and more tanks from the school carriers, along with several of their crews. The girls still wear their school uniforms, which give Miho a nostalgic feeling, remembering the good old days once more. The girls also wear black bulletproof vests, probably provided by Blackout for the duration of the mission. They seem to be happily chatting among themselves, something that surprises Miho, expecting some of them to be at least nervous. Then again, these girls volunteered to participate in the final phase, so they either do know how a battlefield can be...or they will know soon enough. Miho can only hope they will make it out alive and not in a body bag. The girls, upon seeing and recognizing Miho, either wave at her, or walk towards her, in order to greet her and see how she has been for these past 2 years. Some even comment on how cool she looks with all the military gear she is wearing, which makes Miho blush slightly from embarrassment. As she keeps walking, she comes across some of Saunders' tanks, mainly some M4 Shermans, M4A3E2 Sherman "Jumbos" and a lone M4 Sherman "Crocodile", a variant of the iconic M4 Sherman that was armed with a flamethrower, instead of a working gun.

 _That's strange,_ Miho thinks, looking at the Crocodile with a really confused expression. _I don't think the SLF ever authorized this vehicle for use within the league._ As Miho tries to think how Kay managed to acquire such a vehicle, she hears some voices, and one of them is really familiar to her ears.

"I told you, I'm not interested."

"Come on, don't be shy. We just want to have some fun."

Turning towards the direction of the voices, she spots a single girl with long blonde hair and a pair of light blue eyes, standing in front of a tank. In front of her is a man with brown hair and eyes, wearing Blackout's standard uniform and a few steps away from him stand about four men, probably his friends or squadmates.

"Dude, stop annoying every single girl you see in front of you," one of his friends say with a serious expression.

"Shut up Yuji," the man answers back to his friend. The man grabs Kay's left hand and forcefully drags her closer to him...or at least that's what should have happened. Instead, Kay holds her ground and actually pulls the man a little towards her. "You are a feisty one, aren't you?"

"I would suggest letting her hand," the man hears a voice saying and everyone looks towards the origin of the voice, only to find a girl with light brown hair and light brown eyes glaring at him. Kay widens her eyes in surprise, recognizing the girl as Miho, but says nothing for now.

"And who are you, little girl?" the man asks and lets off Kay's hand, turning to face Miho. Several schoolgirls and personnel from Blackout have gathered around, to see what all the ruckus is about. Noticing the emblem that is stitched on her vest, the man frowns. "Ah, you are a member of the Black Wolves, huh?" he says with slight disgust in his voice, and his friends take a few steps away from Miho. "You think you are tough, just because you are a member of an elite squad?" the man says and tries to push away Miho with his right hand. Miho grabs his outstretched hand and twists it, while simultaneously dragging it down, forcing the man to kneel in front of her.

"I didn't woke up one day to this position, you know," Miho responds to the man with a neutral tone. "Me and my friends worked hard to earn this status, so showing a little respect wouldn't hurt," she says with a severe expression, not unlike the one her mother has most of the time. Though they did work hard, Miho and her friends didn't do it so that they could earn the status of an elite squad. That happened kinda on its own. Still, she wouldn't let anyone ridicule the hard work of her friends. The man murmurs something under his breath and clenches his left free hand, but before he can even think of punching Miho, she has already drawn her pistol and aims it directly on his forehead. The man instantly freezes and sweat starts dripping from his face, which has paled considerably.

The man named Yuji slowly approaches Miho and his friend. "I think he learned his lesson," Yuji says to Miho, who upon seeing him approach, holsters her gun, and releases the other man's hand from her grip.

"Just make sure he won't cause problems anymore," Miho says at Yuji, who nods in response.

"Will do, ma'am," he salutes Miho, before turning to face his friend. "Come on, we have to make a really long chat," he says seriously to his friend, while dragging him away.

With this situation over, most of the people disperse, although some of the schoolgirls whistle and cheer Miho for a little bit. Miho just sighs in response, glad this is over with no one getting hurt.

"Mi-ho, who would have thought you'd be such a badass!" Kay whistles in surprise, putting her left hand over Miho's shoulders. "Girl, only 2 years have passed and you've become such a cool gal!"

"Thanks, I guess," Miho smiles at Kay's compliment, though she feels a bit embarrassed from the praise. "It's nice to see you are doing fine after so long," Miho says, happy Kay is as energetic and cheerful as ever. "By the way, shouldn't you be at the command tent with the others?" Miho asks curiously.

"Yes, but I wanted to check on these beauties over here!" Kay says and points at some tanks that are next to her. At first glance, they look like normal Shermans, but the turrets seem...larger and so does the barrel of their cannons.

"Wait...aren't these...M4 Shermans? Why are they equipped with 85mm guns?" Miho asks, totally baffled at what she is seeing.

"Yep!" Kay answers back. "After all the carriers established connections with each other, we sort of run an experiment with Pravda. Since they had a bunch of ZIS-S-53 85mm guns lying around, we thought of equipping a bunch of Easy 8s we had with them." Pausing for a second and looking at the tank, she continues." But, we needed a new turret for the gun to fit inside, so we spend one year in designing and producing the turret. Don't ask me how, it is a really long story. Anyway, we tried field-testing them against bandits, but we couldn't get any definite results."

"I see," Miho says with a thoughtful expression. "So you brought them here to gather data about their performance?"

"Pretty much. Though, in theory, they should be packing a bigger punch than the 76mm they had, so they should perform better."

"That reminds me!" Kay exclaims and quickly turns to Miho. "How is Naomi? Is she okay?" she asks, her voice full of concern for her friend's well-being.

"Don't worry, she is fine," Miho reassures Kay, who sighs in relief. "She had some bruises here and there, but she is good now."

"I can't thank you enough for saving her!" she responds back.

"Excuse me," a male voice is heard behind the girls, and both turn to face a man that holds a clipboard. On his right arm, the emblem of the logistics department is etched. "Are you Saunders' commander?" he asks Kay.

"Yep, it's me alright!" Kay playfully salutes the man.

"And you must be the leader of the Black Wolves," he says, having noticed the squad emblem at Miho's vest. "They are waiting for you at the command center. If you go that way and make a right turn there, you should see a building with 2 guards in front of it," he says at the girls, showing them which way to follow. After that, he leaves the girls alone to continue with his own duties.

"I guess we should get going!" Kay says enthusiastically. "It would be bad if we left the other girls waiting for too long."

"Yes," Miho nods in agreement, and both girls start walking towards the command center, following the road they were indicated.

"May I ask you a question?" she suddenly asks Kay.

"Sure, go ahead!" Kay responds back.

"Where is Alisa? I expected her to be with you," she says to Kay with curiosity.

"I left her back to the carrier. Someone needs to keep everything in order, while I'm gone," she winks at Miho, before adding. "I'm sure she'll love the paperwork!"

Miho can only imagine what kind of "pleasant" words Alisa could be using for her dear commander right now. The two girls happily keep chatting, catching up with each other about their adventures for the past 2 years.

* * *

Opening the door to the command center, a prefabricated building just like the supply depot, both Kay and Miho enter inside it, with Miho closing the door behind her. Looking around, the building is full of computers, people typing things on them, while others run around the place with various documents in hand. In the middle of the building lies a big wooden table, where a map of the region lays open, with several aerial photographs showing the potential enemy strongholds. Around the table sit the commanders of the carriers, along with a few other girls.

Assam sits at the left side of the big table, drinking tea and conversing with a graceful and kindly girl of average height and build, that has blonde hair and a pair of light blue eyes and wears her blond hair in a French braid tied at the nape. She is Darjeeling, the overall commander of St. Gloriana Girls High School. Next to her stands a rather energetic girl of average height, with pinkish red hair and a pair of orange eyes. She seems to be filling Darjeeling's cup with tea, while participating in the girls' conversation. She is Rosehip, a rather _unique_ student in St. Gloriana, thanks to her energetic personality and lack of elegance.

Next to them sits a beautiful girl with long, straight blonde hair and a pair of light blue eyes, holding Katyusha in her hug like a doll, with Katyusha visibly trying to escape her grasp. Her name is Klara, a transfer student from Russia and a trusty comrade of Katyusha. Despite being foreign, she can speak fluent Japanese, something that had surprised Katyusha during the match against Selection University.

On the right side of the table sits Miho's sister, Maho, along with a medium-sized girl with long light blonde hair and a pair of light blue eyes. Erika, the vice-commander of Kuromorimine's team and would-have-been overall commander after Maho had left the school. But thanks to the apocalyptic events of 2 years ago, she'll probably be a vice-commander for the rest of her life. Miho notices that all the girls wear their Senshadou uniforms, which greatly surprises her, since Assam and Katyusha didn't wore them last time she saw them.

Noticing Miho, Erika nods to her as a sign of acknowledgement and Miho nods back, before approaching the table with Kay.

"Ah, Miho!" Darjeeling says elegantly at her, and everyone turns to look at her. "It is so good to see you are still fine after such a long time."

"I feel the same, Darjeeling," Miho smiles at the St. Gloriana's commander. Miho takes a seat next to Erika, with Kay sitting on her right.

Noticing that some people are missing, Miho turns to Katyusha. "Katyusha, where is Nonna?" Miho asks, just as the door to the command center opens, the towering figure of Nonna standing in the doorway, dragging behind her the limp body of Odysseus. One has to wonder how the guards let her enter, while dragging a body behind her or why the rest of Blackout's personell don't bat an eye in this bizarre sight.

"Target secured," she calmly declares, dragging Odysseus till the table and putting her in the seat next to Kay, before going and sitting next to Klara, who still holds Katyusha.

"What happened?" Miho asks slowly, looking at the unconscious Odysseus, whose left cheek is being poked by Kay.

"She crashed in a wall," Nonna calmly replies.

"In a wall..." Miho repeats slowly, and when Nonna nods back, everyone from her side sweats a little.

"How have you been, Elpida?" Darjeeling calmly asks the unconscious blonde, having put down on the table her cup of tea. As if these words were magic, Odysseus shoots up like a spring, pointing a dramatic finger at Darjeeling.

"I did nothing wrong with the tank and i'm not paying for it!", she shouts, causing everyone inside the building to look towards her direction for a moment. Odysseus quickly sits down on her seat, so everyone continues with their own business.

"I see you haven't changed at all, these past 2 years," Darjeeling comments, taking a small sip of tea from her teacup. "How has Annabelle been all this time?"

"Fine," Odysseus answers meekly, avoiding eye contact with Darjeeling. "Though I'm sure Assam has already informed you about her."

"Indeed she has," Darjeeling calmly says, taking yet another small sip from her teacup. "And I'm glad both of you are still fine."

Odysseus say nothing in response, lazily gazing at the open map and photographs that are on the table.

"How does this girl knows Darjeeling?" Erika leans closer to Maho and whispers at her, while Kay introduces herself to Odysseus.

"Apparently, she is a transfer student at St. Gloriana," Maho whispers back at her vice-commander.

"That's...a bit hard to believe," Erika says in disbelief.

"Trust me, I find it hard too," Maho responds back to Erika.

"Good, seems like everyone is here," Teruo, known also as the Coordinator, says in his booming voice, approaching the table after checking some information in one of the computer terminals with a guy from the IT department. "For anyone who doesn't know me, my name is Shimanuki Teruo, also known as the Coordinator."

Standing at the head of the table, he puts down 2 photographs, that show 2 very well fortified bases. "First of all, I'd like to thank all of you for your participation in today's operation. As you know, we have narrowed the enemy's stronghold position to 2 locations," he explains, pointing at the two photographs he had put down previously. "One of the bases is hidden within the mountains, which would put you girls at a disadvantage, especially since your numbers are quite high," he says and everyone nods. Fighting with a tank in a narrow road or ridge could really mean the end of the girls, since the tanks have very little space to maneuver.

"So, we will send you at the other location. The base is located here, and is surrounded by a forest, which unfortunately your tanks cannot cross. The only way to approach the base is by crossing over a small hill from the East."

Looking at the regional map, the girls can clearly see the base's location marked with a black square. All around it is a forest, with only its east side being clear of trees, creating a "corridor" of sorts, with the trees acting as the walls of that corridor.

"Weather forecast says the weather is going to be awful during the last phase of operation Downfall, so don't expect any air support, unless the weather gets better."

"From what we have seen with our drones, the enemy has dug in all around the base." He points at another set of photos. "They have dug trenches, set up mortar positions, machine-gun and anti-tank gun emplacements all over the place. We also believe they might have some artillery pieces, so you should be careful when advancing. We also spotted some vehicles that look like tanks, so assume they have some of them too."

This time he passes to the girls some sheets of paper. "This sheet has all the information I just told you, plus it has the available tanks that will be on your disposal. I'll leave the planning up to you, since you seem to know each other quite well; you leave in 2 hours."

And with that, Teruo walks away, going to another computer terminal and looking at the information that scroll through the screen.

Miho starts looking through the sheet of paper, and as Teruo said, it has all the information he told them. On the back of the sheet, the different tanks the schools have brought are listed, so Miho quickly reads through the list.

 _Available vehicles_

 _Saint Gloriana Girls High School: Churchill MkVII x1 (infantry tank) , Churchill AVRE x1(infantry tank) , A15 Crusader x2(cruiser tank) , A27M Cromwell x2(cruiser tank) , A39 Tortoise x1 (heavy assault tank)_

 _Pravda Girls High School: T-50 x2 (light tank), T-34 x5 (medium tank), T-34/85 x4 (medium tank), KV-2 x1 (heavy tank), IS-2 x1 (heavy tank), IS-3 x1 (heavy tank), T-44 x2 (medium tank), SU-152 x2 (tank destroyer/self-propelled gun)_

 _Saunders Girls High School: M4 Sherman x5 (medium tank), M4A3E2 Sherman "Jumbo" x2 (medium tank), M4 Sherman Crocodile x1 (flamethrower tank), M22 Locust x2 (light tank), M4A3E8 Sherman MkII "Ruskie" x2 (medium tank)_

 _Kuromorimine Girls High School: Panzer II ausf L "Luchs" x1 (light tank), Panzer V "Panther" ausf G x5 (medium tank), Panzer VI ausf E "Tiger" x5 (heavy tank), Panzer VI ausf B "Königstiger" x2 (heavy tank), Panzer VIII "Maus" (superheavy tank), Jagdpanther x3 (tank destroyer), Elefant x1 (tank destroyer), Jagdtiger x1 (tank destroyer), Sturmtiger x1 (self-propelled gun), Flackpanzer IV "Wirbelwind" x1 (self-propelled anti-aircraft gun)_

 _Blackout PMC: Ram III x3 (APC/IFV Hybrid), Panzer IV ausf H x1 (medium tank), Panther S x1 (medium tank)_

 _Wow, the 64th National Tournament was gonna be really interesting,_ Miho whistles in her mind, seeing some rather "lethal" machines at the list, such as an IS-3, a Tortoise, and even a Sturmtiger. Having read the list, Miho looks at it with a thoughtful expression. _We will have 65 tanks to command, which can be a real nightmare,_ she thinks. _Though, 3 of them are artillery, so we will have to leave with them some, in order to protect them. Then...if the number falls to 50, we can divide the units by school and each commander gets 9 tanks each..._

"So...who is going to be the leader for this operation?" Odysseus asks and everyone turns to look at Miho, who is deep in thought.

"I believe we all agree for Miho to be the overall commander," Darjeeling says and everyone nods in agreement.

"Eh?" Miho says, as she snaps back to reality.

* * *

 **Blackout's Main Base**

 **Administrative building, Floor 4**

 **Director's Office**

Opening the doors to the Director's office, a brown-haired woman, that is in her mid-30s, enters, holding two sealed envelopes in her right hand.

"Director," she says as she stops in front of a large office desk, before leaving on it the two envelopes. "We got an urgent transmission from the JSDF," she says and the Director puts down a report he had been reading, turning his attention to the brown-haired woman. "Also the guys from the IT department finally managed to decipher the documents the Antelope team managed to bring back."

"I see," he says, grabbing one of the sealed envelopes. "Thank you Misako. Please wait here for a bit."

"As you wish," the woman responds, sitting in one of the chairs that have been placed in front of the Director's desk.

Opening the sealed envelope, he retrieves a folded letter from inside, and unfolding it, he starts reading it.

 _Confidential, do not show it to anyone except the recipient._

 _We have information regarding the enemy numbers in the region of operations. Intercepted radio signals suggest the enemy has a very sizeable military force. Also, there have been movements of an unknown third force in the vicinity. Caution is advised. We will update as we learn more._

 _JSDF 3rd tank battalion_

 _Commander Chōno Ami_

 _An unknown third force, huh?_ The Director thinks. _Maybe..._

Putting the letter aside, he takes the other sealed envelope and opens it, retrieving yet another folded piece of paper. Unfolding it, he starts reading its contents.

 _The following you are about to read, **are to never be mentioned.**_

 _Document status: **Blacklisted**_

 _Japanese Self Defense Force, Black Lotus branch, Department of Genetics Engineering and Paranormal Phenomena_

 _Subject 23: Nishizumi Miho_

 _Codename: Wolf_

 _Transmission Log: Progress of Subject_

 _Day 1 : Subject has been injected with Serum Black. Although the success rate is low, we believe that there will be no complications. We expect the Serum to alter the subject's genetic make-up in a couple of days._

 _Day 5 : Subject seems to respond well to Serum Black. The molecular binding works as intended and the changes in the subject's DNA structure are smooth and without complications. Dr. **[Redacted]** says that we should be seeing results in a few days._

 _Day 10 : The changes have been completed. We expect the subject to be able to draw out the **[Redacted]** energy any day now._

 _Day 15 : The subject has successfully manipulated the **[Redacted]** energy and gave it the form of a sentient black wolf, that obeys her every command. The girl is the first successful test subject of the high-level Serums. This is going to be a great boost to our project's validity._

 _Day 18 : It seems the subject has lost the ability to invoke her powers at will. Dr. **[Redacted]** says that perhaps invoking extreme emotions at the girl will help her draw them out, though he looks reluctant about the idea himself. I have a really bad feeling._

 _Day 23 : What have we done?! It was all a mistake, we should have never pushed the girl this far! Her powers are out of control, she is slaughtering everyone in the underground lab! I have managed to seal myself in one of the emergency rooms, I hope the subject will not be able to enter it. For the record, it seems that her appearance has changed. Her eyes have changed color from light brown to red and her hair from light brown to black. She also seem to have heightened senses, reflexes and power. This must be a side effect of her powers. One theory I have, is that the power is just too great, so it interferes with the subject's body in unknown ways. I just hope I will make it out of here alive._

 _Day 24 : The subject has been captured. We had to use 3 tranquilizer shots to put her down(Note: The subject is a kid!). Her appearance changes seem to have receded and she says that she doesn't remember anything. Her memory must have been tampered somehow. The mother came earlier and took the subject. The project has officially been disbanded, but I fear it's too late. We have opened a door that can never be closed. This girl, is gonna be either our salvation...or our downfall. This is the last entry of Dr. **[Redacted]**._

Having read the document, the Director puts the paper down on his desk, before turning his attention at Misako. "Misako, could you please bring me the Antelope team's reports from the mission they recovered the encrypted documents?" he asks Misako.

"Of course, Director," Misako responds, already walking towards the door.

Before she can leave the room, the Director adds one more thing. "And please tell the Black Mambas to come to my office. I have a special assignment for them."

* * *

 **A/N: Finally done with rewriting! It have taken a long time, but the chapter had managed to reach almost 11k words! I hope you liked this new rewritten version! Next up for rewriting will be Chapter 9. It might take a bit of time, but I am aiming at 15k words with it!** **A** **nyway, a** **s always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and** **there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**

 _Explanations: RAM IIΙ : A tracked vehicle that looks like a cross-over between aν elongated and chubby version of a T-55 chassis and its engine, it's equipped with a 25mm autocannon and a coaxial machine-gun. It can carry up tο 8 soldiers and it can reach speeds of up to 45-50km/h._

 _M4A3E8 Sherman MkII "Ruskie" : A modified version of the M4A3E8 "Easy 8" Sherman tank with a slightly larger turret to house the ZIS-S-53 85mm gun_


	9. Chapter 9: Downfall

**The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 9: Downfall**

* * *

 **En route to enemy stronghold**

 **2.5 km away from target**

In a lone dirt road, a convoy of almost fifty vehicles slowly advances towards one of R.I.J.A's last strongholds, their aim to capture it, and hopefully destroy R.I.J.A. for good. The sky is blanketed by very dark clouds, with lightnings falling in the background and heavy rain pouring down on the earth, making the ground muddy.

The tanks, which are of various designs and sizes, slowly make their way towards their target, their metallic treads digging in the soft mud, the raindrops hitting their armor relentlessly, though the wind is strangely absent for some reason, in its place a gentle breeze that has no place in this storm. While the heavy and medium tanks use the dirt road, forming a single, long line, the light tanks follow close by in the open terrain that is between the dirt road and the boundaries of the forest in which the girls find themselves.

Somewhere in the middle of the convoy, between the Maus and Darjeeling's Churchill MkVII, a lone Panzer IV ausf H moves along the long line, its treads clanking and digging slightly into the soft mud, which has been compressed quite a lot from the Maus' treads, thanks to its tremendous weight. Inside the Panzer IV, which has a cute, cartoonish anglerfish painted in both sides of the tank's Schürzen plates in the turret, and the emblem of Ooarai Girls High School painted in the Schürzen plates that cover the sides of the hull, sit five girls, the formerly known Anglerfish team.

Mako is driving the tank, Saori is reading a novel, Hana looks through the gun's sights from time to time, checking for enemies, Yukari is gazing nowhere in particular, daydreaming, and Miho looks with a thoughtful expression at a clipboard which has a map of the target area, covered with a transparent, plastic membrane. She uses a black marker to draw and mark things on top of it, mainly small circles and arrows. Drawing some final details, she closes the marker and inspects what she has drawn. Looking at a yellow sticky note that is stuck at the top right edge of the map, she starts reading the team compositions she has written on it:

 _Artillery team: SU-152 x2 (tank destroyer/self-propelled gun), Sturmtiger x1 (self-propelled gun), T-50 x1 (light tank), M22 Locust x1 (light tank), T-34 x3 (medium tank), M4 Sherman x3 (medium tank), Panzer V "Panther" ausf G x3 (medium tank)_

 _Team A:_

 _Commander: Nishizumi Miho, Panzer IV ausf H x1 (medium tank)_

 _Vice-commander: Kay, M4A3E2 Sherman "Jumbo" (medium tank)_

 _Saint Gloriana Girls High School: Churchill MkVII x1 (infantry tank) , Churchill AVRE x1(infantry tank) , A15 Crusader x2(cruiser tank) , A27M Cromwell x2(cruiser tank) , A39 Tortoise x1 (heavy assault tank)_

 _Saunders Girls High School: M4 Sherman x2 (medium tank), M4A3E2 Sherman "Jumbo" x2 (medium tank), M4 Sherman Crocodile x1 (flamethrower tank), M22 Locust x1 (light tank), M4A3E8 Sherman MkII "Ruskie" x2 (medium tank)_

 _Blackout PMC: Ram III x3 (APC/IFV Hybrid)_

 _Team B:_

 _Commander: Nishizumi Maho, Panzer VI ausf E "Tiger" (heavy tank)_

 _Vice-commander: Katyusha, T-34/85 (medium tank)_

 _Kuromorimine Girls High School: Panzer II ausf L "Luchs" x1 (light tank), Panzer V ausf G x2 "Panther" (medium tank), Panzer VI ausf E "Tiger" x5 (heavy tank), Panzer VI ausf B "Königstiger" x2 (heavy tank), Panzer VIII "Maus" (superheavy tank), Jagdpanther x3 (tank destroyer), Elefant x1 (tank destroyer), Jagdtiger x1 (tank destroyer), Flackpanzer IV "Wirbelwind" x1 (self-propelled anti-aircraft gun)_

 _Pravda Girls High School: T-50 x1 (light tank), T-34 x2 (medium tank), T-34/85 x4 (medium tank), KV-2 x1 (heavy tank), IS-2 x1 (heavy tank), IS-3 x1 (heavy tank), T-44 x2 (medium tank)_

 _Blackout PMC: Panther S x1 (medium tank)_

Having read the team compositions, Miho once again scans what she has drawn over the map, her expression remaining thoughtful, though her eyes show nothing but worry and concern.

"Is anything wrong, Miss Nishizumi?" Yukari asks in concern, seeing Miho's thoughtful expression. "If anything is bothering you, you can always talk to us," she says with a smile.

Upon hearing Yukari's voice, Miho snaps out of her thoughts and looks at her friend. "Thanks a lot Yukari, I really appreciate it," Miho says with a smile at her.

"It's just that...there are a lot of lives on the line, here. As the leader of all these girls, I have to make sure they will come out of this whole ordeal alive, but..." Miho sighs quietly. Both Hana and Saori have turned to look at Miho, listening to what she's saying. "We all have been in the field long enough to know that...there are always casualties, when a lot of people are fighting." Miho grips the clipboard hard, looking at the tank's floor. "I don't think...I'm strong enough to bear the weight of their deaths on my shoulders..." Miho bites her lip to stop herself from saying anything else, only bitter words filling her mind. "I don't want to lose any friends," she mouths these last words, so no one hears them.

Suddenly, she feels something grabbing her right hand, so looking at her right, she finds Yukari holding it with both of hers.

"Don't worry Miss Nishizumi, I'm sure you will keep all of us alive," Yukari says with a smile.

"She is right, Miho," Hana says, so Miho turns to look at her. "You are an excellent commander, with both the talent and skills to prove it."

"Yeah, like in the match against Selection University!" Saori pipes up from her seat.

"If it weren't for you, we would have bit the dust long ago," Mako comments from her seat.

Hearing her friend's words, Miho feels a huge weight being lifted from her shoulders. Sighing in relief, she looks at her friends once more.

"Thank you, all of you," Miho serenely smiles at the girls.

Before anyone can say anything else, her radio starts producing static, before a familiar voice starts speaking.

 _"Miho, we have arrived at the first point."_

"Copy that, Sister," Miho responds back, before looking through the cupola's vision ports. The Panzer IV enters a large open space, with tanks already fanning out and slowly stopping, their humming engines barely audible over the thunder and heavy rain. Mako parks the tank between one of the modified Easy 8s and Kay's Sherman Jumbo, as Miho turns to look at Saori.

"Saori, change the frequency to the general one," she orders and Saori complies.

"Frequency changed to the general one," Saori says and Miho nods.

Picking up her radio, Miho takes a deep breath before speaking. "To all units, this is Miho, do you copy?" Seconds later, a flurry of affirmatives floods the comms, but Miho somehow manages to count them, confirming that all tanks have responded, so she continues talking. "I'll go over the plan once more, so pay attention." She pauses for a second, before speaking again. "Our plan is to attack and capture one of the last strongholds R.I.J.A. has on Japan. The base is surrounded by cement walls that have a height of five meters and three of its sides are covered by a forest. This leaves us with only one way to approach.

Despite the terrain being flat, there are numerous defenses set up by the enemy. Air-photographs taken by drones earlier in the morning indicate an extensive trench network has been dug, as well as several machine-gun nests, mortar pits and anti-tank sites have been constructed. Moreover, the photographs indicate several tanks in hull down positions.

Our forces have been divided into two teams. Team A that is led by me and team B that is led by my sister, Maho. After we split on our teams, we will proceed at a hill that is five hundred meters away from our position and climb it. Then, we will line up at the hilltop and commence bombardment at the enemy's defenses, at the same time as the artillery team's first salvo connects. After that, we will descend the hill and begin our assault. Any questions?" Miho finishes her explanation of the plan.

 _"In the map that you have given us, that shows the area around the enemy base, the area between the base and the hill has been divided in Sector A and Sector B. Could you explain it a bit more, please?"_ one of the M4 Sherman commanders asks.

"Yes. Sector A is the area up to one kilometer away from the hill and it mostly has trenches and machine-gun nests. Sector B, is the area from the one kilometer mark till the enemy base. In addition to the trenches and machine-gun nests, it also has the rest of the enemy defenses that I mentioned. The sectors are to help the artillery team know where to strike. It would be bad if they bombarded our positions by mistake," Miho answers the commander's question. "Any other questions?" she asks, but gets no response back. "Split to your teams; we leave in ten minutes."

And with that, the engines of the various tanks rev up, as they slowly start moving, organizing themselves to the assigned teams. Miho opens the cupola's hatch, emerging from it and looking at the tanks around her despite the heavy rain that is dousing her. Having been on the battlefield for a long time, things like rain, the heat or the cold barely affect her anymore. The most they can do now is to be a minor nuisance.

"Miho."

Hearing her sister's voice, Miho turns to her left and spots a Tiger with the number "212" painted on the turret sides in red color. Through the cupola's hatch a girl with dark brown hair and eyes stands.

"You'll catch a cold if you stay in the rain for too long," Maho says, as the Tiger stops in front of the Panzer IV.

"I could say the same for you," Miho answers back, and both sisters smile to each other. Though Maho's smile fades instantly when she gets a transmission.

"What is the problem, Erika?" Maho asks in her radio, while Miho quietly looks at her. "Can't you solve it?" Maho asks and after a brief pause, she sighs a little. "Fine, I'm on my way."

Looking at Miho, she smiles at her once more. "Sorry Miho, something came up that needs my attention. I'll see you after this mission," Maho says as the tank lurches forwards. "And please be careful."

"You too, Sister," Miho responds back.

And with that Maho ducks inside her tank, closing the cupola's hatch. Miho keeps looking at the Tiger for a little more, before she too, gets back inside the Panzer IV and closes her hatch.

"Miho, you'll catch a cold if you stay like this," Saori says, handing Miho a towel to dry herself.

"Thanks a lot, Saori," Miho responds back, taking the towel and wiping herself. "Saori, contact the HQ and tell them we are about to begin the assault," Miho orders Saori, as she hands her back the now wet towel.

"Copy that," Saori responds. Putting the towel away, Saori contacts the HQ to inform them of their imminent assault, and after a few minutes of talking, she ends the transmission and turns back to look at Miho.

"HQ said to inform you that if the weather gets better, they'll send us air support. Other than that, we are good to go," Saori informs Miho, who nods in response.

Looking through the cupola's vision ports, she notices that most tanks are in position, with only a few moving towards their designated team. Picking her radio, Miho starts talking. "Darjeeling, are you in position?" Miho asks, and after a brief moment of silence, Darjeeling responds.

 _"Me and my girls are in position and awaiting your orders,"_ Darjeeling's calm voice bleeds through the radio.

"Kay, are you in position?"

 _"We are ready to roll out!"_ Kay cheerfully responds back to Miho.

 _"We are ready on our end, too,"_ Maho's voice is heard from the radio.

"OK. To all units, change your radio frequency to your team's one. First order of business is to line up on the hilltop for the bombardment. After that, we will assault the base." Making a brief pause, she takes a deep breath, resolving herself at what has to be done in the name of freedom. "Panzer vor!"

Reving up their engines, the tanks slowly make their way towards the hill with the heavily armored ones in the front, just in case the enemy decides to open fire the moment they spot them. Behind them follow the medium and light tanks, using the heavy ones as a form of cover. Exception to this rule is the Maus, which is climbing he hill at an astonishing speed of five km/h.

The rain has died down in intensity by now, only a slight drizzle falling from the skies, much to the Wirbelwind's crew's relief, though the dark clouds keep blanketing the azure sky stubbornly. As the tanks reach the hilltop, they start lining up besides each other, with the exception of the light tanks, which stay behind the other tanks, just to be on the safe side.

Miho emerges through her cupola and looks at the enemy defenses. A huge trench network filled with infantry, a multitude of machine-gun nests, mortar pits, tanks that have dug in and anti-tank sites. Against them, nearly fifty machines that could instill fear and terror into any man's soul, designed to be powerful and invisible, at least in theory. In practice, tanks were weak against infantry, if the conditions were right. That's why, even in the modern day, infantry almost always supports armored units.

"If anyone wants to back out, now it's your chance," she says into the radio, looking at the other tanks, since some of the commanders have emerged from their own tanks to look at the enemy's defenses.

 _"Nah, where is the fun in that?"_ Kay says enthusiastically from her tank.

 _"It would be really unladylike to withdraw at this point,"_ Darjeeling comments from inside the Churchill, drinking some tea.

 _"They dared to mess with Pravda, so now they will pay the price!"_ Katyusha angrily says through her radio.

 _"We have a mission to do, and we will see it through to the end,"_ Maho says with a neutral tone.

Having heard the responses, Miho remains silent for a little, before speaking again. "Then to all units, aim for either the machine-gun nests, or the tanks and anti-tank guns past the one kilometer mark," she says, and almost instantly the guns in all tanks start moving, their sights aimed upon one of the many targets that this soon-to-be battlefield has to offer. "Everyone, button up and do not fire until the artillery's salvo lands." Diving inside the tank and closing her hatch, Miho looks at Saori. "Saori, change frequency to the artillery team," she orders and Saori complies.

"Done," Saori answers back as she changes the frequency.

"Artillery team, this is Miho, do you copy?" Miho says in the radio, and after a few moments of silence a response comes back.

 _"This is the Sturmtiger commander, we copy you Miho."_

"You are clear to start barraging the enemy in Sector B, grid points D6, D8 and E5. After that, await for fire missions from either me and Maho, or the sub-commanders."

 _"Acknoledged. Ordinance inbound in 20 seconds,"_ the Sturmtiger commander says, before terminating the transmission.

Miho sighs slightly, knowing that they have passed the point of no return. "Hana, aim at one of the machine-gun nests. Yukari, load HE shells, unless me or Hana say otherwise."

"Yes!" both girls say. Miho looks through the vision ports, waiting for the artillery's first salvo to hit.

"Time to make history I guess," she mutters as she hears a sound that resembles a motorcycle engine. Seconds later, she spots a huge explosion in the distance, followed by two smaller, yet equally destructive explosions. "Fire!" she yells and Hana presses the firing pedal.

Almost 50 different cannon reports fill the air, some getting drowned by the others, followed by the sounds of explosions as HE shells land everywhere, blowing up machine-gun nests and mortar pits, killing dozens of enemy soldiers in the trenches, who die either by shrapnel, or get blown up to pieces by the actual explosions, their remains going for a short flight through the air.

The enemy opens fire, as .50 Cal bullets, along with small arms fire start hitting the tanks, bouncing off their armor. Mortar rounds explode all around them, throwing dirt everywhere. Even a few AP shells from the anti-tank guns manage to hit some of the heavy tanks, though they harmlessly bounce off, the distance being greater than their maximum effective range.

"Team B, advance!" Maho yells through the radio, and Team B's tanks start descending the hill. Upon reaching the foot of the hill, the hull and coaxial machine-guns come to life, as they start sweeping the trenches, the soldiers inside them getting ripped to pieces by the bullets. "Keep advancing and leave the remaining infantry to the Wirbelwind and Luchs; target the tanks or the anti-tank guns!" she says in her radio, as her Tiger passes above a trench and manages to crush a soldier's head with its tracks, though the sound of crushed bones gets drowned by the cannon's fire. A mortar round lands next to the Tiger, shaking it slightly. Then a shell bounces off the side of the armor, this time the tank shaking a lot more.

"Gunner, T-50, eleven o'clock! Range, six hundred meters! Loader, load AP!" Maho says, as she spots an entrenched light tank in the distance, which fires a shell towards them, but misses by a wide margin.

"Up!" the loader yells, as she loads an AP shell in the breech.

"Fire!"

"On the way!" the gunner says, as the cannon's breech kicks backwards, releasing a shell casing that falls to the ground. The AP shell propels itself on the light tank, piercing right through its frontal armor and killing the crew, as well as setting the engine on fire. "Target's finished."

As the combined forces of Kuromorimine and Pravda plow through the enemy defenses, Team A has also descended from the hill, crashing through the enemy defenses like a wrecking ball.

The Sherman Crocodile is having a field day with the trenches, burning every enemy soldier it can find in its path and even machine-gun nests. The Tortoise just plows through them like they never existed, while firing into enemy tanks and anti-tank guns, and the Churchill AVRE is lobbing HE shells from its spigot mortar, blowing machine-gun nests and enemies into oblivion.

"Hana, machine-gun nest, two o'clock. Range, one hundred and fifty meters," Miho says, looking through the cupola's vision ports for the nearest target. Aiming at the target, Hana fires the cannon and an HE shell hits the nest, blowing it up.

"Target destroyed," Hana calmly says, as she acquires a new target.

"Miporin, the artillery team says they don't have any fire missions," Saori says to Miho, turning slightly to look at her. Looking at her map, Miho crosses some squares with a marker, before looking back at Saori.

"Tell them to bombard grid points E3 to E7. Two full salvos per grid point," Miho says to Saori, who relays the information to the Sturmtiger commander.

 _"At this pace, we will be able to secure the base in less than an hour!"_ Kay says in the radio, the sounds of cannons discharging being heard in the background.

 _"Indeed,"_ Darjeeling comments. _"The assault is going rather well, and the weather seems to be getting better,"_ she adds, before noticing that Rosehip has gone a little too deep behind enemy lines, so she ends her transmission to contact her and tell her to come back.

 _A little too well,_ Miho thinks, feeling that something is not right with the whole situation. These aren't your run-of-the-mill bandits that just loot and steal from others. These are trained soldiers under the command of an organization, which has both the resources and manpower to take over the school carriers, give the JSDF a hard time and probably unite Japan under its rule, if it wasn't for Blackout. So for this assault to be going this well, especially when it is against the enemy's stronghold, where the leaders are supposed to be...

"This doesn't make any sense," she murmurs, a thoughtful expression forming on her face. Despite their current progress, her hunch is telling her to retreat from here at full speed, lest she wants to invite death.

 _"Miho, we have passed the one kilometer mark,"_ Maho's voice is heard from the radio, snapping Miho back to reality.

"Copy that. Contact the artillery team and tell them to cease all fire support until further notice," she tells her sister. Putting the radio down, she takes a moment to look at her clipboard, before looking through the vision ports. "I really hope nothing bad will happen."

"Miss Nishizumi?" Yukari asks as she loads yet another HE shell in the gun breech, having overheard her commander's last sentence.

"Hmm? Oh, it's nothing Yukari," Miho quickly responds with a smile. "I'm just worried about the rest of the girls, that's all," she lies, to make sure her friends won't worry more than they have to.

While Team A is advancing through the enemy defenses without a problem, in Team B's side, the Antelope team has found itself in quite a pickle.

"I swear to God, Odysseus, if we don't make it out of here alive and in one piece, I'm gonna haunt you for the rest of your crappy afterlife!" Tyler yells at the blonde commander, holding an HE shell and waiting for Reiji to fire the gun. Kicking back, the gun breech throws out a shell casing, so Tyler instantly inserts the shell he is holding and closes the gun breech. "Up!"

"But this is an opportunity to cripple the enemy defenses and cause chaos!" Odysseus yells back, as an enemy anti-tank gun fires at them, its AP shell hitting the turret at the left side and harmlessly bouncing into the air, while causing the Panther to shake. "Load AP next! Reiji, fire at the AT gun, then start hitting the tanks!" she orders, looking through the vision ports. "And for God's sake, drive more carefully, Annabelle!" she adds, as the tank makes a sudden left turn to avoid fire from another AT gun that is tracking them.

"Want to try and avoid shells and mortar pits, eh!?" Annabelle yells back, as she drives over a couple of unfortunate soldiers, crushing them under the medium tank's treads.

"Come on, it's not that-BRAKE!" Odysseus yells suddenly, and Annabelle brakes the tank as hard as she can, with the Panther stopping and rocking back and forth violently. A split-second later, an 85mm shell skims over the upper glacis of the tank.

"Reiji, T-34-85 at nine o'clock, one hundred meters! Annabelle, traverse!" she orders, as both the turret and tank start rotating. The T-34-85 fires another shell, but it just misses by a wide margin.

"Target in sight!" Reiji says loudly and Annabelle stops rotating the tank. After a long second of waiting, Reiji presses the firing pedal and the shell that comes out of the barrel flies straight to the enemy tank and hits it square in the turret ring, penetrating and killing the crew through spalling. "Target destroyed."

"Annabelle, get us back to the team's line!" Odysseus shouts, as several shells either pass close to the tank or bounce upon impact with the turret and front armor.

"You don't have to tell me twice!"

 _"Panther S, get back in formation now!"_ the angry voice of Erika is heard through the radio, so Odysseus picks it up to respond just as kindly.  
"Listen bitch, we are coming ba-"

 _*Clank*_

Hearing the cupola's hatch opening, Odysseus stops talking and looks above her, only to find a man thrusting a sword's blade towards her. Thinking quickly, she sticks as close to her sit as possible, the blade scratching the center area of her bulletproof vest and then landing between her legs, slightly denting the metal seat she is currently sitting on. With lightning reflexes, Odysseus unholsters her pistol from its holster that is on her right hip, aims it at the enemy's head and puts the safety to off, before firing four bullets, all of them striking the target and causing blood and a partially destroyed eyeball to fall onto Odysseus.

"What happened!?" Tyler says urgently, as he and Reiji look at Odysseus after hearing the gunshots. "...I-I think I'll vomit," he croaks as he looks away in disgust, having spotted the eyeball that sits in the seat, surrounded by blood that slowly falls from the corpse. Even Reiji seems to get a little pale from this grotesque sight, though he is handling it a lot better.

"A guy tried to make me skewered meat," she casually comments, like this is an everyday occurrence. Putting the safety back on and holstering her pistol, she proceeds to wipe her face from the blood that has fallen on it with the right sleeve of her uniform. "Shit, looks like I'll need to bathe after we are done here," she murmurs. By now, Annabelle has successfully drove the tank back to their assigned team, which has stopped advancing for now, waiting for the Luchs and the Wirbelwind to catch up as they clean the trenches.

"What the..." Annabelle trails off as she sees the condition in which Odysseus is, along with the corpse that hangs from the cupola. "What happened?"

"Nothing much," Odysseus answers back, as she takes the calvary sword from the dead guy's grasp and puts it next to her seat. "Just the usual."

"What kind of answer is this?" Annabelle asks back incredulously, but Odysseus doesn't answer.

Pushing the body out of the tank, it falls down on the engine deck, so Odysseus, after grabbing the partially destroyed eyeball, exits the tank onto the engine deck to dispose of the body.

"Everything's alright?" she hears a voice asking, and looking at the tank's right, she finds Maho's Tiger, with Maho partially out of the cupola and looking at her with her usual stoic expression, though she seems a little surprised.

"Yeah, just had some trouble with this guy," she responds, kicking the body over the engine deck's edge on the right side, while throwing the destroyed eyeball at a random direction. "The good news is that I got a calvary sword as a memento, isn't that awesome!"

"You, why did you-" Erika's voice is heard saying, before stopping abruptly. Her Königstiger stops next to Maho's Tiger, and Odysseus can see Erika's shocked expression in all its glory. "Wh-What happened to you!? Are you alright?" Erika stutters, seeing Odysseus' face, hair and uniform full of blood.

"I'm fine, don't worry," she answers, pointing at the blood on her face. "The guy to whom this blood belongs to, however, is currently taking a nap," she giggles, before getting inside the Panther.

Erika just looks in shock at where Odysseus stood. "What is wrong with this girl," she says in utter disbelief.

"Stay focused Erika. We have a mission to do," Maho says to her vice-commander.

"Ah...yes commander!" Erika responds, before both girls dive back inside their tanks, the Luchs and the Wirbelwind having finally finished sweeping the trenches for potential enemies.

"These insects are no much for our might!" Katyusha says from her tank's cupola, peeking from the left side of the hatch's cover, since it opens towards the front. "Hey, Pirozki, some of the enemies are running towards the forest," she says to her radio, as she sees some of the defenders running towards the surrounding forest and entering it. "Should we pursue?"

 _"Negative Katyusha. Resume the current objective, but keep your guard up; the enemy might be preparing something,"_ Miho answers through the radio.

"Copy that," Katyusha answers back. As both teams slowly approach the base's gate, most of the defenders start running to the forest, though a hefty number of them never makes it.

"To all units, cease fire," Miho says through the radio. "All defenses have fallen and the enemy is on the run."

"Yeah!" several of the girls cheer over the comms, happy that the battle has been won.

"Form a perimeter around the base at a distance of one hundred meters. My team will take the left side, while Maho's will take the right," she says, before adding one more thing. "Katyusha, have the KV-2 bring down the gate. After that, the Rams will move inside the base to secure it."

 _"Ok,"_ Katyusha responds, before cutting the transmission and contacting the KV-2 crew. As the tank moves in front of the door to demolish it, the Rams follow suit and stop behind it. _"The KV is ready to fire,"_ she informs.

"Fire," Miho says and a second later, the KV-2's 152mm M10-T howitzer roars, as it spews an HE shell that hits the large metal door, the explosion horribly denting it and throwing it off its rail.

"Wind, you are clear to proceed," Miho says.

 _"Copy that, proceeding to secure the base,"_ one of the Ram III commanders responds, and the Rams bypass the KV-2 and enter the base.

Their 20mm autocannons come to life, as they start mowing down the last scraps of opposition. Stopping at the center of the base, they unload a squad of soldiers, before continuing their hunt for the defenders.

"Alright, listen up! I want every building checked for any strugglers," a man starts speaking, and everyone turns to face him. "If you find any documents that have important information, secure them immediately!"

"Yes sir!" everyone responds. The squads split and start checking each building, small arms fire echoing throughout the base.

"Saji, get Moka and check this thing over there," he says at a young man with black hair, pointing at a tall, hexagonal pillar made of metal plates.

"Yes sir," the young man salutes, before going off to find Moka and then check the hexagonal pillar.

As the man looks around, he presses the earpiece in his left ear once.

"Bastion, this is Delta Leader, do you copy?" the man says.

 _"Delta Leader, this is Bastion, we copy you,"_ a deep voice answers from the earpiece. _"What's your status?"_

"We have entered the base and are securing it as we speak, but we have stumbled upon something unexpected."

* * *

"What is it?" Teruo asks in his headset's microphone. He is currently inside the command building, surveying the units that have been tasked with capturing the stronghold that is in the mountains. He is currently looking at one of the numerous computer monitors that have been set inside the building, the screen showing the camera feed from the helmets of one of the soldiers.

 _"Uhmm...I don't know how to say this, but there is a tall metal pillar in the center of the base,"_ Delta Leader reports. _"In the aerial photos we were given there was no such thing as this pillar."_

Teruo doesn't respond at first, trying to think what purpose this thing might have. A mere jammer maybe? Or is it something worse? "Can you enable your camera feed?" he asks, wanting to see this strange object with his own eyes.

 _"Yes sir. Please give me a moment,"_ Delta responds. After a moment, he responds back. _"Camera feed enabled, number ninety-nine"_

"Change to feed ninety-nine, monitor twenty-four," Teruo says to one of the people that are controlling the camera feeds. Suddenly, the camera feed changes to that of Delta Leader, from the perspective of his weapon most likely, as a barrel can be seen at the lower left of the screen. "This is peculiar," Teruo murmurs as he looks at the strange, hexagonal pillar.

 _"What should we do, sir?"_ Delta asks.

"For now, continue with securing the base. I'll contact you with further instructions later," Teruo responds back and terminates the transmission as the feed from Delta's camera becomes black, before the monitor goes back to the original camera feed it was showing.

"Sir, we have an incoming transmission from Echo Leader," one of the people, a woman this time, says from a nearby terminal. "He says he has urgent news regarding the current operation."

The moment Teruo hears this, bells start ringing in his head, his instinct telling him things are going to get bad, really fast.

"Patch him through," Teruo orders, so the woman types something in her terminal. "Echo, this is Bastion, what's going on?"

 _"Bastion, we have uncovered enemy documents that indicate Operation Downfall has been compromised,"_ Echo Leader responds.

"What did you say!?" Teruo practically yells at his headset's microphone, causing everyone in the room to stop whatever they are doing and turn to look at him in alarm. An eerie silence feels the room, as Teruo listens to Echo's report.

 _"Th-The documents suggest that both strongholds are decoys, effectively traps, in order to deal a significant blow to our forces,"_ Echo stutters a little, taken aback by Teruo's sudden outburst. _"This stronghold had been trapped with bombs, set to activate remotely via a signal, though it seems the receiver was damaged in the firefight. We currently have engineers disarming the explosives, but we have evacuated most of our forces from the location for safety reasons."_

Before Teruo can respond, a voice is heard from Echo's side.

 _"Sir, you need to see this!"_

 _"What is it?"_

A few seconds pass, as silence feels the room once more, until Echo speaks up.

 _"Sir, we've learned from the documents that R.I.J.A. is planning to destroy the other decoy base by using a GBU-43/B that was supplied to them by an unknown party,"_ he speaks with a grim voice and Teruo can feel his blood freezing.

"A MOAB," he whispers, before turning at one of the operators. "Contact Delta Leader immediately and tell him to abort mission and evacuate as quickly as possible!" he shouts, as he terminates Echo's transmission. The operator immediately starts typing on her terminal.

"You, get me a weather report for the next two hours!" he yells at a female operator who is standing behind him, holding a PDA. The woman yelps in surprise, but does as she is told too. "Get me Delta Leader's camera footage that he streamed," he says to the operator of the terminal he is currently in, and after the operator inputs some commands on the terminal, Delta's previous camera footage starts playing.

"Here, pause it," he says, and the operator pauses the feed. Teruo looks at the strange, hexagonal, metal pillar, widening his eyes in revelation. "They must have the bomb inside the pillar," he mutters to himself.

"Sir, we can't get in contact with Delta Leader!" the operator tasked with contacting the forces at the stronghold Miho has assaulted, answers. "The signal isn't getting through; the enemy must be using jammers!"

"Keep trying!" he answers back. "We need to contact them ASAP!"

"Sir, I have the weather report," the woman who had yelped before, says, offering her PDA to Teruo. Taking it, he reviews the weather report quickly, before handing it back to the woman. "Contact the closest base with air assets you can find and tell them to send a force of three jets equipped for CAS against ground targets, four attack helicopters and four BH-HTs," he orders and the woman nods, going away while typing something on her PDA.

 _We really got the short end of the stick this time,_ he thinks, as he wipes the sweat that has formed on his forehead. _I hope they can hold out until reinforcements arrive,_ he prays in his mind, knowing full well that the enemy will use this chance to counterattack.

* * *

 **At the same time**

 **Captured enemy stronghold**

Delta is looking all around him, lazily gazing at the structures that surround him. The gunfire has died down by now and the Rams have parked in the center of the base, pointing their 25mm autocannons at the ground in front of them.

"Sir, all buildings have successfully been secured and the squads are checking them for any documents or other information the enemy might have," a soldier who stands besides him, says. "The squads have reported no casualties. However, the resistance they encountered was really low."

"I see," Delta says in a thoughtful expression, gazing at the hexagonal, metal pillar that stands in the center of the base. "Go and help the squads with the search," he orders, and the man salutes and walks away.

Turning his gaze in front of him, he looks at a man that is on his knees, his hands bound behind his back. He wears an IJA WW2 uniform and his face has a serious expression. "Now then, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way," Delta says at him, looking straight in his eyes. "Question 1. Why did you attack the girls?" he asks.

"They chose to enter the battlefield as warriors. It's only proper we greet them as one," the R.I.J.A. soldier curtly replies, never breaking eye contact.

"Fair enough. Number 2. Where are your leaders?"

"I don't know. Even if I knew, I would never tell you," the man says firmly, so Delta doesn't push him for answers.

"We'll see about that after you are handed to our interrogation specialists," Delta answers with a serious expression too. "Just don't expect to be able to eat solid food after they are done with you. Anyway, question 3. If this is one of your strongholds, why are there so few soldiers defending it? Don't get me wrong, the defenses were impressive, although really obsolete, but the main base was almost deserted, not to mention you guys didn't put that much of a resistance," Delta says as he pulls a cigarette and a lighter from one of his pant's pockets. Putting the cigarette on his mouth, he lights it and takes a drag on it, before exhaling the smoke. "Why is that?" he asks, pointing the lit cigarette at the enemy soldier.

The man says nothing at first, electing to stay quiet. Then, he says one sentence. "May the gods have mercy on our souls, for we will meet them soon enough."

Delta raises an eyebrow at this. He wants to ask the man what he means by that, but someone interrupts him before he can do so.

"Sir, we managed to open the pillar!" Sagi shouts from the base of the metal pillar, while a woman next to him starts moving what looks like welding equipment, which was probably used to cut the pillar's metal plates.

"Coming!" he shouts back, starting to walk towards Saji. _I'll ask the prisoner what he meant later._

Reaching the pillar, he finds a small rectangle cut made in one of the sides, the cut being barely large enough for a human to crawl through. "Couldn't you make it smaller?" he asks sarcastically, before crouching in front of the cut section of the plates. "Give me your flashlight," he says and Saji complies, handing him his flashlight. Putting half of his body inside the cut-out section, he turns on the flashlight, light flooding inside the dark interior of the pillar, revealing its secrets.

" What the..." he trails off as his mouth hangs open, the lit cigarette falling down on the ground. His eyes widen in shock, as he looks upon a really huge bomb that hangs from the top of the pillar, with various wires snaking all around it.

Without losing time, Delta gets out of the pillar and stands up, picking his radio and pressing a button on its side to talk. "To all units, evacuate the area immediately, we have been set up!" he yells on top of his lungs. "I repeat, we ha-"

 _*Click*_

"Shi-!"

* * *

As Miho picks up her radio to speak, a loud explosion is heard and moments later something with the power of a freight train hits her tank, causing it to violently shake and even slide a few dozen centimeters on the ground. The girls get thrown everywhere, as Miho barely avoids a collision with the gun breech and falls on top of Yukari. She feels dizzy and disoriented, her vision being blurry and a constant ringing grasping her ears. She can hear thumping sounds all over the tank, like it's raining outside, albeit they are barely audible thanks to the ringing.

Getting up and grabbing her aching head, she takes a moment to shake off the dizziness, before turning to look at who she landed on.

"Yukari, are you alright?" Miho groans, stooping down and trying to lift Yukari from the tank's floor.

"I-I'm fine Miss...Nishizumi," Yukari groans in response, grabbing her seat and trying to pull herself up. "My head hurts though."

"Girls, are you okay?" Miho asks the rest of the crew, as she finally manages to lift Yukari.

"I'm fine!" Saori exclaims from her seat, although she sits upside down now. "Though I have no idea how I got like this!"

"All good here," Mako answers from her seat, still being slightly disoriented. "Though I hit my head pretty hard-ouch!" she says as she wipes some drops of blood that roll from her forehead to her face.

"Let me see your forehead," Saori says to her, having gotten up from the tank's floor. "It seems a little bruised, but doesn't seem to be a concussion."

"Hana?" Miho asks, since the tall, black-haired girl is the only one that hasn't responded yet.

"I'm fine, Miho, though my right forearm stings a little," she answers, her face clearly expressing pain as she holds up her right arm by the wrist, so as not to let the forearm touch anything.

"Are you sure it's not broken?" Miho asks, just to be sure.

"Yes," Hana answers back.

"OK. Saori, when you are done with Mako, help Hana with bandaging her forearm. Yukari, get out of the tank and check the tracks for any significant damage," Miho orders and grabs her radio.

"OK!" both Saori and Yukari answer. While Yukari gets out of the tank through her hatch, Saori starts bandaging Mako's head.

"But what was that!? One moment everything is fine, and the next an explosion is heard and something hits the tank with so much force!" Saori says to Miho, although she doesn't turn her head to look at her.

"Whatever it was, I don't think Delta and Wind are with us anymore," she grimly states and everyone adopts saddened looks.

"They must have hidden a bomb somewhere inside the base, then detonated it," Mako says, flinching lightly as Saori tightens some gauze around her head. "It was all a trap. Again."

"But what kind of bomb can produce such powerful explosion?" Hana asks.

"There are explosives that can level whole blocks, given the amount is enough," Mako answers back.

"Whatever the case, we are in serious danger. The enemy will probably take this chance to counterattack, so we need to get out of here as fast as we can," Miho says. Opening her hatch and exiting the tank halfway through the cupola, she looks back at where the base is supposed to be, only to find that nothing remains, except for the foundations of the concrete walls that once surrounded the enemy stronghold, only a shallow crater in its place. All around her there are huge chunks of concrete and metal, while a thin layer of dirt and concrete dust covers the tank.

"To all units, report," she says in her radio, looking at the other tanks. Some of them are fine or have their paint scratched, while others have dents on their armor.

 _"This is Kay. Other than a few minor injuries and a Sherman that rolled on its side, we are fine,"_ Kay responds first, her voice full of worry. _"But what the heck was this explosion!? It decimated the whole base!"_

 _"This is Darjeeling. All units are accounted for and the girls only have minor injuries, such as bruises and a few bumps,"_ Darjeeling says on the radio _. "Thankfully, the light tanks were checking the trenches at the 1 kilometer mark along the Flakpanzer for any survivors, so they were not in any danger,"_ she informs Miho, who sighs in relief.

"Sister?" she asks on the radio, waiting for Maho to respond.

 _"We are fine on our end, no serious injuries,"_ Maho responds back.

"Everyone, listen up. We need to get out of here as fast as possible, the enemy will probably counterattack any moment now. Don't let your guard down and don't approach the forest boundaries."

 _"Those damn insects, how dare they lay a trap and lure us in it!?"_ Katyusha yells in frustration in the radio, not happy about the whole situation.

"Miss Nishizumi, I checked the tracks and they are fine," she hears Yukari saying, and looking down, Miho finds her climbing on the tank. "Whatever the enemy used, it had to be a bomb. Or else they would have to use an insane amount of explosives."

"Mako said they must have used a bomb. But what could be powerful enough to completely obliterate a whole base?" Miho asks Yukari, since she's quite knowledgeable in anything that relates to the military, though her specialty still remains the tanks.

"There are some bombs that are powerful enough for such level of destruction, such as the American GBU-43/B, or the Russian ALOM-9D75 air-fuel bomb. Though if it was the latter, we would have been scorched to cinders," Yukari responds back.

"You never seem to stop surprising me," Miho compliments Yukari. "At any rate, get inside and tell Saori to contact HQ and report this."

Yukari nods and quickly enters inside to inform Saori of Miho's orders, while Miho picks her radio once more. "To all units, start-"

 _*Boom*_

 _*Crack*_

Before she can finish her sentence, she spots a bright muzzle flash from the boundaries of the forest, accompanied by the sound of a cannon being fired and a shell penetrating a tank.

 _*Boom*_

 _*Clank*_

Another cannon report is heard, this time an HVAP striking the front upper glasis of Kay's Jumbo and harmlessly bouncing off in the air.

 _"Incoming from the forest!"_ Kay screams in the radio. _"The flipped Sherman has been destroyed, but the crew is safe!"_

"To all units, enemies spotted in the forest! Trace the muzzle flashes and eliminate them!" Miho says to the radio as fast as she can. "Kay, do your tanks have any smoke shells?" she asks as some of the tanks start opening fire in the forest, with both AP and HE shells crashing in the trees and completely destroying them.

 _"Yes,"_ Kay curtly replies, as another shell bounces off the armor of the Jumbo.

"Have them fire the smoke shells in the boundaries of the forest, than order the Sherman Crocodile to burn the trees!"

 _"Copy that!"_

 _*Boom*_

 _*Crack*_

Looking to her left, she spots one of the M4 Shermans from Saunders, with a small round hole in the lower glacis of the hull.

 _"We've been hit, we've been hit!"_ the commander of the Sherman shouts over the radio, screams being heard in the background. _"My driver and radio operator are dead, and my gunner is bleeding a lot! Me and the loader have sustained moderate wounds, but-"_

 _*Crack*_

The transmission is cut short, as another shell penetrates and hits the ammo rack, detonating the shells inside the tank and incinerating the crew instantly. The force of the explosion is so great that the hatches get blown off their hinges, great pillars of fire jetting out of every crack and hole they can find.

"We lost a Sherman!" Miho reports in the radio and everyone's blood freezes instantly. The girls might have dealt with bandits before, meaning they were somewhat used in getting shot with live ammunition, but they never had any losses. To actually hear the sound of the tank's ammunition exploding, and the comms falling silent from the Sherman's commander, to see the flaming wreck of where five girls were mere moments ago. It is terrifying, even for Miho, who could feel a single tear forming on her left eye.

Another shell manages to penetrate one of the Cromwells through the front of the turret. Both the commander and the loader get ripped by hot shrapnel all over their bodies, with the loader somehow only getting hit in her left hand and both legs. The driver and front gunner only receive light wounds on their arms, as the vests they wear stop most of the shrapnel from plunging themselves straight into their backs. The Cromwell reverses and takes cover behind Darjeeling's Churchill.

"Kay, we need those smoke shells now!" Miho says loudly on the radio, seeing that the Shermans fire either AP or HE shells.

Although Kay doesn't respond, the Shermans finally start lobbing smoke shells, thick, white smoke obscuring vision between the forest and them. While the enemy doesn't stop firing, the shots are immensely less accurate, missing the tanks by a wide margin or striking the thick armor of the heavy tanks. The Sherman Crocodile takes a gamble and moves close to the forest boundary, before starting to set the trees and grass on fire. As smoke rises and the fire starts spreading, the enemy stops shooting, probably to pack up and run away, not wanting to be burned to death.

"Kay, can you hear me?" Miho asks, and after a few silent moments, she receives an answer.

 _"Y-Yeah...I-I can hear you, Miho,"_ Kay responds, though the cheerfulness her voice always has is nowhere to be found.

"Order the Sherman Crocodile to move to Team B's side and set the trees on fire there too," she says. "Darjeeling, how is the crew of the hit Cromwell?"

 _"Both the commander and the gunner are dead. The loader has severe wounds on her left hand and some grazes on her legs, but the front gunner and driver are mostly fine,"_ she states in a grim tone, though Miho could swear she could hear someone sniffling. _"Though the girls are too shaken to fight."_

"Understood. Get the girls out of the tank and tend to the loader's wounds," Miho says back, before terminating the transmission. Sighing loudly, she dives back inside the tank. "Saori, did you contact the HQ?"

"Yeah, but it was really hard to understand what they were saying," Saori responds back to Miho, making a confused expression. "Most of the time I got static, but I managed to somewhat get a part of their transmission. It said to wait here, reinforcements and air support are on their way. ETA: 30 minutes."

"It's too long, though if we move now, we run the risk of getting ambushed again," she says. "And I don't think the girls can fight for much longer."

"The tension and the casualties are taking a toll on their mental health," Mako comments.

"Yeah. Saori, contact the artillery team and tell them to retreat back to the forward HQ."

"Ok," Saori responds, and starts fiddling with the radio. Miho just slumps on her seat, looking at the blue sky through her cupola's open hatch.

"Seems the weather got better," she murmurs to herself. "Though things will only get worse, before getting better."

"Don't be like that, Miss Nishizumi!" Yukari says cheerfully, trying to brighten up the mood. "I'm sure things will turn fine! We just need to wait for the reinforcements and then we will all be safe."

"She is right, Miho," Hana adds in, trying to cheer her friend up. "We just need to wait and-"

"Miporin, I can't get in contact with the artillery team!" Saori says urgently. "I only get static in response!"

 _Things just got worse,_ Miho thinks.

* * *

 **At the same time**

 **Team B's side**

"Erika, give me a casualty report," Maho says in her radio, looking at the edge of the forest.

 _"Yes,commander. The two T-34s are out of action, and one of the Panthers has been immobilized,"_ Erika responds back, her voice slightly quivering.

"How are the crews of the T-34s?" she asks Erika, now looking at the M4 Sherman Crocodile from her sister's team, which is setting the edge of the forest on fire despite the enemy hasn't fired a single shot for the past few minutes.

 _"One of them got hit with a high-caliber HE shell, resulting in spalling inside the fighting compartment. Thankfully, their wounds are not that severe and the vests managed to absorb some of the shrapnel; their injuries are being treated, but it would be good to be checked by a doctor."_ Erika pauses for a moment, gulping audibly. _"The other crew...received a penetrating hit on the turret. Both the commander and the gunner are dead. The others survived with minimum injuries, except for the loader, who is in critical condition. Nonna and Klara are trying to apply first aid, but she is bleeding a lot. I...don't think she'll make it..."_

"Thank you Erika," Maho calmly answers. "Contact me if anything else comes up."

 _"Yes, commander!"_ Erika responds back, and then the line falls silent. Maho just stands halfway through the cupola of her Tiger, looking at the two empty T-34s, clenching her hand in frustration. She has lost two tanks and three girls, if we count the loader who is fast approaching her end. How could she be so careless and underestimate the enemy's power? First the decoy base they got lured into, then the ambush from the forest. The girls knew the risks of participating in a real battle, but simply knowing...cannot prepare you for this cruel reality...nothing can prepare you for such an outcome.

 _"Sister, can you hear me?"_

Snapping out of her thoughts, Maho pucks up the radio to respond to her sister. "I copy you, Miho. What's going on?"

 _"I can't get in contact with the artillery team, probably because the enemy is jamming our long range communications. Can you send the Luchs and the T-50 to check on them and inform them to fall back to the forward HQ?"_ she asks.

"Will do," Maho responds back.

 _"Also, reinforcements will arrive on our location in about half an hour,"_ Miho says, making a small pause. _"Please, Sister. Stay safe,"_ she says in an almost pleading voice.

"Don't worry, I will. Stay safe too," she responds back, before terminating the transmission. By now, the light tanks and the Flakpanzer that were in the one kilometer mark have safely returned to their respective teams.

"Luchs, T-50, report in front of my tank," she orders in the radio, and after half a minute, both light tanks stop in front of Maho's Tiger.

"Orders, commander?" the Luchs commander asks loudly, having pulled herself halfway out of her tank, just like the T-50 commander has done.

"I want both of you to go to the artillery's team last known location and she if they are alright, since long range communications are being jammed. If they are okay, tell them to retreat back at Blackout's base, then come back to report. If they have been attacked, I want one of you to go back at Blackout's base and inform them about it, while the other one comes back to report. Take Ritaiko with you, in case you find enemies. Do NOT engage them unless it is necessary," she says to the commanders of the light tanks.

"Yes, commander!" the light tank commanders respond, before diving back to their tanks and driving towards the hill, along with one of the Jagdpanthers. Passing over the hill, they start making their way towards the artillery team's last location, which is approximately give kilometers away from their current position.

* * *

 **At the same time**

 **Artillery team's location**

The artillery team has stopped at the middle of a road that is wide enough to fit three tanks next to each other, with enough flat ground next to the road's both sides to fit another two tanks side by side. After that, there is a thick forest, though the trees have just enough spacing between them for a tank to squeeze through. In the middle of the road, there is the Sturmtiger, along with Pravda's SU-152s. The rest of the tanks are around them in a half-circle formation, with the light tanks staying closer to the SPGs, rather than the medium tanks.

Inside the Sturmtiger, there is complete silence, only the static of the radio echoing through the fighting compartment.

"We can still talk to the others near us, so someone must be messing with our long range communications," the commander of the Sturmtiger says, looking at the radio the tank has.

"Are you sure we should stay put?" the driver asks her. "What if the commander is in trouble?"

"She is right," one of the loader says. "We all saw that huge cloud of smoke that rose in the air, and even now, there are 2 plumes of black smoke rising in the sky. I think we should either return back to base, or go towards the teams."

"No. Unless we receive further orders, we won't move from here," the commander bluntly says, instantly shutting down the idea of relocating. "What if they suddenly ask for support and we are out of position? Are you willing to shoulder all the deaths and injuries that our actions could cause?" she asks her crew and everyone inside the tank falls silent.

"Commander, may I speak freely?" the radio operator asks, in which the commander nods. "I believe we should meet with the assault teams and merge with them. Not only we can't do anything from here, as communications with them have been lost, we are-"

 _*Boom*_

 _*Crack*_

 _*Fwoosh*_

"What was that!?" the commander yells, as the radio gets filled with voices.

 _"One of the Shermans has been hit! I-It has caught fire!"_

 _"I can't see anyone exiting!"_

 _"Enemies on our left side! Multiple Chi-Nus!"_

 _"I got enemies on the right si-"_

 _*Crack*_

 _*Fwoosh*_

 _"We lost another tank!"_

The Sturmtiger commander is at a loss, the whole situation being too much for her to handle, overwhelming her in mere moments.

"Commander, we need orders!" the driver yells, which manages to somewhat make the commander regain her senses.

"I want everyone to-"

 _*Clang*_

The whole tank shakes violently as a shell bounces off of the frontal armor of the superstructure.  
"Commander, two T-34-85s in front of us, no markings!" the radio operator/front machine gunner yells, firing the MG-34 at the two enemy tanks.

The commander loses no time and aims the huge 380 mm RW 61 rocket launcher L/5.4 at one of the targets and presses the firing pedal. The HE shell that exits the barrel literally rockets itself to the target, hitting the front of the turret and exploding. The force is so big, that the turret gets forcefully ripped off of the turret ring, sliding on the vehicle's engine deck and falling down on the ground. The second T-34-85 explodes in a brilliant orange fireball, as one of the SU-152s has managed to bear its gun on it and fire.

 _*Thump*_

Several gray canisters exit through the forest canopy and into the air, before arcing and falling downwards among the artillery team's tanks. Clanging a few times on the asphalt of the road or bouncing on the flat, grassy ground around it, the canisters start releasing a green gas that quickly envelops the tanks and starts entering them.

 _Are they trying to obscure our vision?_ the Sturmtiger commander wonders in her mind, though she soon gets her answer.

"Comman-gah...cough, cough!" the driver manages to say before starting to cough uncontrollably, grabbing her neck like she is being suffocating.

"Yoko, what's-gah!" the commander grabs her throat too, having inhaled the green gas.

"P-Poison...gas!" one of the loaders croaks, feeling her throat swelling to the point where she is barely able to breathe. All of the girls start developing cracks on their skin, like it is drying, meanwhile bleeding from every orifice on their bodies. The blood vessels in their eyes start bloating and they start coughing blood uncontrollably.

"E-Everyone...cough,cough...make a run...for it!" the Sturmtiger commander croaks at the radio, but no one responds, though she spots one of the light tanks, Saunder's M22 Locust driving away towards the assault teams. The other tanks simply stand motionless, their crews probably already dead from this horrific bioweapon.

"D-Driver...get us out of here!" the commander manages to force the words out of her swelled throat, but she gets no response. "Y-Yoko, are you..." she trails off, as she sees that Yoko isn't moving at all. Bloody tears start falling from her eyes.

 _Y-Yoko...no..._

Looking around her, everyone is motionless, not even breathing, clearly dead. Their bodies keep spewing blood, which starts pooling on the tank's floor. Looking through her sights, she can see the enemy tanks moving towards the direction of the Locust. She can feel every inch of her body burning, the pain overwhelming her, her consciousness fading. She is scared, she doesn't want die. She wants to live, to see her friends back on the carrier. She knew what she was getting herself into when she volunteered, but still...she wants to survive.

Though if fate has other plans for her, than so be it.

In her final moments, she decides that if she is to go down, she'll go down fighting till her last breath. Looking through the gun's sights, she finds a Chi-Ri stopping in front of her tank, its commander looking around at the carnage, his face unreadable through the gas mask he is wearing.  
"If I am going to hell..." the commander starts saying. "...then I'm taking you with me."  
As she is about to fire the rocket launcher, the bloated vessels in her eyes explode, the shock and pain knocking her out unconscious, letting her die from severe bleeding. But fate has already decided to grant her final wish,for her body falls on top of the firing pedal, pushing it down and firing the HE shell that is inside the launcher. The shell smashes at the side of the Chi-Ri and penetrates the flimsy side armor the tank has, detonating and literally popping the tank from the inside-out, the turret getting flung away, meanwhile the side from which the shell penetrated is no more present. As the gas clears, the only thing that remains are smoking wrecks and tanks with running engines, inside them hiding the gruesome fates of their crews.

* * *

In a lone road move two light tanks and a tank destroyer, racing towards the artillery team's last location, keen on finding whether they are still standing or have perished under the enemy's might. Both the Luchs and the T-50 are staying close to Ritaiko's Jagdpanther, their turrets scanning the forest that flanks their sides.

Since long range communications are being jammed, the three commanders had decided to maintain radio silence between them, in order to minimize the chances of getting detected by the enemy. Despite not having seen a single enemy for the past 7 minutes they have been moving on this dirt road, all of the crews are on high alert, scanning their surroundings again and again for even the slightest of hints that the enemy is going to ambush them.

"C-Commander...I'm scared," the loader of the Luchs whines softly, her body trembling slightly.

"Don't worry, everything is going to be fine," the commander says back to her loader, using the gun's sights to scan the surrounding area. "We just have to check on the artillery team's status and then proceed accordingly." She takes a moment to look at her loader. "Not too hard or scary, right?"

"B-But...what if the artillery team has been ambushed and suffered losses!?" the loader says loudly, panicking a little. "So many of us have died! I don't want to die! I just want to go back to the carrier and see my friends." The loader whines and sniffles a few times, wiping some of the tears that have formed on her eyes.

"Hey, hey, don't start losing it all of a sudden," the commander says to her loader, gently shaking her shoulder. "Look, I know how you feel. I am scared too and I think it is natural for a human to be scared when their life is in danger, but you don't see me crying or whining. You volunteered for this, despite knowing the risks." The loader just looks back at her commander, the tears in her eyes slightly obscuring her vision. "Just do your best and you'll be fine. I'll make sure of it," the commander smiles at her loader, who wipes her eyes and develops a determined expression.

"Thank you, commander!" the loader happily exclaims with a smile.

"Commander, in front of us!" the driver says in alarm, as she brings the light tank to a stop.

The commander rises halfway through the cupola and instantly feels her stomach churning. As the dirt road starts elevating, at its peak, there is a lone M22 Locust standing motionless. About 10 meters away from it is the body of a girl, her bloody clothes having left a trail of blood behind her, as she tries to crawl towards the Luchs, albeit in vain, as she doesn't have the strength to do so anymore. She just lies on the ground, barely conscious and coughing blood. Her eyes' blood vessels seem so bloated, you could think they would burst at any moment, the skin of her body full of cracks, like dried ground that hasn't received water in months.

Although the commander wants to avert her gaze and wish this is just a bad dream, the first thing she does is to jump off the tank and run towards the girl. Kneeling besides her, she turns her around and slightly lift the upper half of her body from the ground, supporting her with her hands.

"Hey, can you hear me? What happened to you!?" she asks the girl in alarm, seeing her blood seeping out from everywhere.

"P-Please...help me," the girl pleads in a strained voice, looking at the Luch's commander with her bloody eyes, the bloated blood vessels visible. "W-We were attacked...they...poison gas...everyone's dead," she says between her raspy and heavy breathing. She grabs the commander's right arm, looking at her with a desperate expression. "Please...help me... I...don't want to die..." she pleads, bloody tears rolling on her cheeks. The commander's own eyes start tearing, her brain trying as hard as it can to find a way to help the girl, but finding none.

Suddenly, the blood vessels in the girl's eyes burst, throwing a bit of blood on the commander's clothes.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaa!" the commander screams in surprise, as she throws the girl's limp body away from her, crawling backwards instinctively. She starts hyperventilating, her widened eyes fixed on the dead body that is in front of her. Springing back to her feet, she immediately runs to her tank, entering through her hatch and closing it.

"C-Commander?" the loader asks slowly, seeing the commander's crying face. Even the driver looks at her in concern, her face a little pale since she was able to see the whole scene unfold through her vision port.

 _"Hey, what happened Satsuki? Are you alright?"_ a voice calls through the radio.

"Ritaiko, the girl is dead!" Satsuki answers back at the Jagdpanther's commander. "Her skin was full of cracks, and she was bleeding all over her body, and her eyes just suddenly exploded!" she yells at the radio, and everyone develops a terrified expression.

 _"W-What..."_ is the only thing Ritaiko can manage to say, as her mind completely blocks.

"She...she said that the enemy used poison gas to kill them!" she cries out, though her voice this time is full with nothing but anger and hate.

 _"Poison gas!?"_ Ritaiko asks back in disbelief.

"Yes! The whole artillery team was wiped out with poison gas that these fuckers used on them!" Satsuki curses. "Why would they do something so horrible!?"

 _"S-Satsuki, you need to calm down!"_ Ritaiko says quickly. _"We need to return back to the commander and inform her as quickly as possible."_

 _"Enemies in front of us!"_ the T-50's commander shouts in the radio as she spots two Chi-Nus appearing at the peak of the road, where the M22 Locust is.

"They are gonna pay for what they have done!" Satsuki yells and aims the Luchs' gun on the enemy tanks.

The Luchs opens fire first, roaring in anger as it spews 20mm rounds on the enemy tanks, only for the rounds to harmlessly bounce off the frontal armor. The T-50 opens fire and its 45mm APCR shell manages to penetrate one of the Chi-Nus, setting it on fire.

Then the monstrous 8.8 cm Pak 43/44 L71 cannon of the Jagdpanther gets fired and the other Chi-Nu explodes as it gets hit in its ammo rack.

 _"We need to leave now!"_ Ritaiko yells through the radio and all three tanks turn around and start running towards the two assault teams, as more Chi-Nu and Chi-Ri tanks start appearing, firing their cannons at the fleeing girls.

* * *

 **At the same time**

 **Team B, Panther S**

"Ah, isn't this a beautiful sight to behold?" Odysseus says, gesturing with both arms at everything in front of her. "The burning trees, the plumes of smoke, the corpses of both ally and foe, the desperate and devastated expressions of their friends," she sighs, looking at the person who is next to her. "It reminds me of things I want to forget."

"You know this isn't funny, right?" Annabelle frowns at her friend. Both girls are sitting at the edge of the Panther's engine deck, drinking some bottled tea and enjoying this small reprieve before the enemy attacks again. "Girls died, Odysseus. Girls that deserved to live," she says with a serious expression. Odysseus drops her goofy expression and adopts one of sadness.

"I know, I know, I was just trying to lighten the mood," she tries to defend herself.

"This isn't a laughing matter. We are talking about lost lives here," Annabelle reprimands her friend. "Look at them, Odysseus," Annabelle points at the three dead bodies of one of the T-34s crews, which have their faces covered with their Senshadou jackets. Several girls are around them, some crying and mourning, others praying, and others silently gazing at them." Do you think your little joke would be funny for them?"

"Sheesh, I get it, so chill out a bit," she says back to the redhead. "You know why I act like that. It's the only way I can cope with things like these."

"That doesn't mean that it is right." Sighing slightly, she sips some of her tea. "But I should apologize too. I might have overeacted a bit too much," Annabelle apologizes to Odysseus. "I just want for all of this to be a bad dream," she murmurs.

"Amen to that," Odysseus says, before drinking the rest of the tea her bottle has.

"Hey, Odysseus, I finished the shell-count," Tyler says as he pops out of the commander's cupola.

"Great timing Tyler!" Odysseus exclaims, happy he is here to provide a distraction from all the serious talk. "So, how is our situation?"

"Not that bad. We are running low on AP shells, but both HE and APCR shells remain at good levels," he informs the blonde girl.

"Hmm..." Odysseus hums, a thoughtful expression settling on her face. "Unless the enemy comes en mass, we should be fine. Though I think the HE shells would be useless against tanks."

"Speaking of tanks, do you think the enemy-"

"Hey, can you hear this?" Annabelle asks, interrupting Tyler from finishing his answer.

"Hear what?" both Tyler and Odysseus ask in unison.

"I can hear this faint, whistling noise, though I think it is getting louder."

"Are you sure you don't-" Odysseus starts saying, but then stops as she recognizes the sound, the empty tea bottle slipping from her hands and falling to the grassy ground.

"EVERYONE, GET INSIDE THE TANK NOW!" she yells as she stands up and drags Annabelle with her towards the cupola. Tyler instantly dives back inside the tank, the urgency and terror in Odysseus' voice a clear indicator that something bad is about to happen.

"Hey, what's the-" Annabelle tries to ask, when she spots several rockets falling from the sky, their launch point from somewhere inside the forest. Her body reacts on its own, as she finds herself diving inside the commander's hatch, landing on the metal seat and smearing dried blood all over her uniform and vest, sliding somewhat off the seat and hitting the ground with the upper half of her body. Odysseus too dives inside the tank, landing with her butt on top of Annabelle's butt, and sealing the cupola's hatch.

"Brace for impact!" she shouts, as several explosions occur both near and far from their Panther, which starts shaking considerably, especially when some of the Rockets land really close to it.

"What's going on!? Tyler asks in alarm, trying to grab from somewhere so he won't fall to the ground from all the shaking.

"Rocket barrage!" Odysseus responds back.

"What happens if one of the rockets hits us?" Reiji asks, keeping somewhat his cool even under these circumstances.

"Best case, we blow up! Worst case, we burn to death!" Odysseus groans, as she hits her shoulder on the side of the turret from all the shaking. "Ouch!"

"I feel like I'm going to get crushed!" Annabelle shouts, as Odysseus' shifting weight is starting to place a strain on her pelvis.

"Hey, I'm not that fat!" Odysseus pouts, like she is oblivious to what is happening around her.

"Now it's not the time for this, commander," Reiji says, as the explosions start dying out, then completely cease altogether. "It seems the explosions stopped."

"You don't say," Odysseus answers back sarcastically, pulling herself off of Annabelle and unsealing her hatch. Pushing it open and peeking out of it, she gawks at her surroundings, fear grasping both her heart and mind at what she is seeing. "It's just like back then," she whispers, but quickly pushes away any bad memories that may have resurfaced.

"This is so awful..." Annabelle gasps from her hatch, covering her mouth with her left hand. The landscape all around them is full of craters, slightly resembling the surface of the moon. Tanks burn brightly, as fires consume their wrecks and crew alike, with body parts lying everywhere, belonging to the unlucky few that got caught outside when the barrage hit. Two of the T-34-85s are burning brightly, their engine decks having being struck by the rockets and got completely destroyed, the immobilized Panther has popped like a heated corn seed and the IS-2 has lost most of its left suspension system. However, either by sheer luck or divine intervention, the Flakpanzer IV has survived, the worst its crew received being a shower of dirt.

Maho unseals her hatch, opens it and starts scanning her surroundings. She can see tanks in flames, with plumes of black smoke rising slowly in the sky, girls crying and running around as they try to tend to those who have been critically wounded.

"E-Erika, give me a casualty report," she calmly says through her radio, though her voice stutters for a moment. She just wants to cry, the pressure of seeing her underclassmen dying in such horrific ways being more than what she can handle mentally. Though the thought of what could happen if she let her emotions go rampant right now is the only thing that keeps her composed, as much as composed she can be in such a situation.

 _"We have lost both of the Panthers and the crew of a Tiger I,"_ Erika starts reporting, her voice sounding a little bit strained. _"The Maus has been completely immobilized and its main gun has been destroyed. Katyusha reports that she has lost 2 T-34-85s and the IS-2's transmission has been destroyed on the left side."_

"Casualties?" Maho inquires, but Erika keeps silent for a few moments.

 _"...No survivors from the hit tanks..."_ she almost whispers.

"Thank you Erika. Please make sure that the injured girls are treated," Maho says, before terminating the transmission. Sighing deeply, she turns to look towards the direction where Miho's team is. Seeing smoke plumes rising slowly to the sky, she unconsciously picks up her radio.

"Miho, can you hear me?" she says in a voice full of worry, hoping that her sister is fine. But as the seconds pass and Miho doesn't respond, her heart starts beating faster, sweat forming on her forehead and something heavy weighing on her stomach. "Miho, can you hear me?" she says a little louder on the radio, but once again, she gets no response. Maho is about to order her driver to take them at Miho's side, when she finally responds.

 _"I can hear you, Sister,"_ Miho says quickly, like she is in a hurry. _"Sorry for the delay, but we got hit by a rocket barrage and it is a complete mess here."_

"Are you okay?" Maho asks in concern.

* * *

"Yes, I'm fine; Most of the rockets missed us by a wide margin, but there were some that landed next to us," Miho answers as she surveys the damage that has been done all around her. "I'll contact you later; need to know the extent of the damage that has been done on the team. Stay safe."

 _"Stay safe too, Miho."_

As Maho terminates the transmission, Miho contacts Darjeeling to ask about the condition of her forces. "Darjeeling, what is the status of your forces?"

 _"We got out of the barrage relatively unscathed. The undamaged Cromwell got both of its treads destroyed, so we can safely assume that it won't be able to move anymore. One of the Crusaders had its crew knocked out when one of the rockets landed next to it. Other than that, everyone is fine, albeit shaken,"_ Darjeeling reports on the radio.

"Kay?" Miho asks, wanting a report from her too.

 _"We lost the Locust when one of the rockets landed directly on the back end of the engine deck, but thankfully the crew managed to escape before the tank was engulfed in flames,"_ Kay says slowly, glad the crew didn't burn to death. _"Other than that, we are all fine."_

"Ok. Stand by for further orders," Miho says to them and then dives into the tank.

"Saori, any luck with contacting the HQ?" she asks Saori.

"Not yet," Saori answers back, still wearing her headset and fiddling with the radio frequencies. "Whatever they are using to jam our long range communications, it must be pretty powerful. I'm getting nothing but static."

"Keep trying. We may get lucky," she answers back.

 _Now what should we do?_ she wonders in her mind, trying to see what options she has available. _The reinforcements won't arrive for another 10 to 15 minutes, which by itself isn't that much, but if we factor in the rocket barrage and that it might happen again... This feels so frustrating! Should we try and return back to the base or wait for the reinforcements?_ Having gotten stuck in this dilemma, she fails to notice the surprise on Saori's face.

"M-Miporin, I think I'm getting a signal!" Saori says excitedly and everyone turns to look at her.

Miho instantly puts her headset on her head, trying to listen at what is being transmitted.

 _"T...an...dly uni...se re...nd! ...are...d b...my...d...ar...i...i...ediat...ce!"_ she hears a voice saying, though the static is making it really hard to understand what it is saying.

"Saori, can you clear it?" Miho asks quickly, hoping this is a transmission from the base or the reinforcements.

"I'll try," she responds back.

 _"Can any...us!? W...ed assista...ately!"_ Miho hears this time. Although she cannot hear exactly what the voice is saying, she can feel the distress in it.

Waiting a few seconds longer, the signal starts becoming clearer by itself, until it clears to a certain level.

 _"Anybody, pl...respond!"_ a female voice yells.

"This is Miho Nishizumi," Miho starts speaking to the radio, but the female voice cuts her.

 _"Mi...zumi!? We have...emies chasing us! We are approaching the hill...aiko is in trou..."_

Despite not being able to clearly hear what the girl is shouting, she gets the gist of what she is saying. "How far away are you from the hill?" Miho asks with a concerned voice, and everyone turns to look at her with worried expressions.

 _"We should...your sights at any moment now!"_ the girl shouts, with the signal having cleared considerably. At this, Miho pulls halfway through the cupola with a pair of binoculars and looks at the top of the hill their tank had been less than an hour before. Sure enough, two light tanks appear on top of the hill, a Luchs and a T-50, rapidly descending towards her.

"Where is Ritaiko?" she asks at the radio, remembering her sister saying to her that she sent the 2 light tanks along with Ritaiko's Jagdpanther.

 _"She sent us in front of her to ask for help!"_ the girl says.

 _"What about the artillery team?"_ Maho asks, having spotted the 2 light tanks that are running at full speed.

 _"They are gone! The enemy used poison gas to kill them!"_

At this, everyone freezes in place. The sheer absurdity of the comment could make it look like a really bad joke, if it wasn't for the seriousness in the girl's voice.

"What..." Miho whispers in disbelief, her eyes slowly widening.

 _"While we were making our way to the artillery team's last known location, we found the M22 Locust and...and it was horrible!"_ the girl starts crying. _"I-It's commander was...her skin was cracked and she was bleeding from everywhere!"_

 _"If anyone can hear us, this is Ritaiko! My tank is being pursued by five enemy tanks! We are about to cross the top of the hill!"_ another voice cuts in, and Miho looks back at the hill and spots Ritaiko's Jagdpanther quickly descending it. About 200 meters behind her, 3 Chi-To and 2 Chi-Ri are trying to catch up with her, firing their cannons in hopes of getting a solid hit on the tank destroyer. _"Please, someone help us!"_

 _"We'll make those fuckers pay!"_ Odysseus' voice is heard through the radio and the Panther S, along with the two T-44, rush forward to Ritaiko's rescue. Even the T-50 and the Luchs turn around, trying to flank the enemy tanks or draw their attention away from the helpless Jagdpanther.

"Mother!" Ritaiko cries as a 75mm AP shell strikes the side armor of the superstructure and gets deflected due to the angle it lands, causing the whole vehicle to shake. The Jagdpanther keeps zig-zagging to throw off their pursuers' aim, and despite that, Ritaiko's hat is stubbornly staying on top of her short brown hair, her light brown eyes looking at the distance, hoping for someone to come and save them.

Suddenly, the sound of grinding steel is heard, as the vehicle shakes violently once more and the tank starts losing speed rapidly.

"We got hit in the engine!" the driver yells as the tank destroyer comes to a stop.

"Then how are we still alive!?" the loader yells.

"The shells must not have had enough penetration to pass through the engine block," the gunner calmly informs the loader.

"Enough chit-chat! We are abandoning the vehicle!" Ritaiko yells and opens her hatch to exit. As she pulls herself out of the tank and tries to crawl forward on the Jagdpanther's roof, machine-gun fire start peppering the rear of the tank, and one of the bullets manages to hit Ritaiko at the right shoulder, passing cleanly through it, but missing any major arteries. The gunner though isn't so lucky, as she receives a dozen bullets on her back and head, killing her instantly as witnessed by her body that falls inside the tank again.

"Gaah!" Ritaiko cries, as she manages to push her body in the tank's front and literally barrel down on the ground. "Aaagh!" she cries out as she lands on her wound, blood seeping out at a rather high rate.

Another shell strikes the back of the tank destroyer, this time the shell landing at the superstructure and piercing, the shrapnel storm that gets created inside the fighting compartment killing almost everyone.

Ritaiko stands up and clasps her wounded shoulder with her left hand, before starting to run towards one of the trenches that is about 70 meters away from her. Her eyes start tearing up as she hears yet another shell penetrating the tank destroyer, whose engine has been set on fire.  
"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry," she whispers as she runs away, adrenaline filling her body. Then, out of nowhere, an AP shell hits her leg just under the knee, completely mutilating her leg. In fact, it is so sudden that the only indication Ritaiko gets about it is a burning sentation just under her knee, the loss of balance, as she finds herself falling towards the ground, and her mutilated leg, which gets flown in front of her by the shell's force.

 **"Aaaaaaaahhhh!"** she screams on top of her lungs as the pain kicks in. Despite that, she still tries to crawl towards the trench, now being less than 20 meters away. One of the Chi-To is quickly approaching her, the crew seemingly wanting to crush Ritaiko under the tank's treads.  
 **"I don't want to die, I don't want to die!"** Ritaiko cries out, feeling her strength fading away slowly, becoming increasingly difficult to drag her body. She can hear the Chi-To's engine getting louder and louder, her gruesome death fast approaching. **"Someone, please save me! I don't want to die!"** she screams desperately, hoping for a miracle to happen.

 _*Vrooooom*_

And a miracle happens indeed, as Odysseus' Panther passes over her, the tank's ground clearance being just enough to not hit Ritaiko. The Panther rams the Chi-To, causing both vehicles to shake. The Luchs then flanks the rammed enemy and opens fire, its 20mm rounds punching through the flimsy side armor and detonating the ammo rack, resulting in a beautiful explosion that throws the turret in the air. The Panther reverses slightly and then shoots forward, its gun firing shell after shell at the other tanks that dare to enter in its line of fire.

As the Luchs go back to where Ritaiko is, the T-50 and one of the T-44 stop next to her too, the commanders jumping down to help Ritaiko and stop her bleeding.

"Ritaiko!" Satsuki yells as she jumps down on the ground and kneels next to her friend. Despite the horrific sight of her friend's lost leg, Satsuki gulps audibly, then proceeds to remove her vest and finally shirt.

"What are you doing!?" the T-50's commander asks incredulously. More cannon reports start feeling the air, as the Tigers try to snipe the enemy tanks from a distance of one kilometer away, with the shells successfully landing on the targets and destroying them.

"We need to stop the bleeding!" Satsuki quickly shouts back, as she ties her shirt tightly on Ritaiko's leg, in the area just above the knee. "This should reduce the bleeding somewhat," Satsuki says and motions to the other two commanders to help her get Ritaiko inside one of the tanks. "Let's get her in my tank! It has the most space!

"OK!" the other two respond, as Satsuki and the T-44 commander support Ritaiko and slowly walk her towards the Luchs.

"I'm so happy you came back, Satsuki," Ritaiko says weakly, smiling at her friend.

"You can thank me later for saving you. Now we need to get you somewhere safe," Satsuki says to Ritaiko. Reaching the Luchs, the T-50 commander climbs on the tank's engine and tries to lift Ritaiko up. After a bit of time and a lot of effort, they manage to get Ritaiko inside the Luchs, which surprised the loader, as evidenced by her yelp.

"Just get her back to the rest of the girls. I'll ride one of the other tanks back to you," Satsuki informs the driver from the top of her hatch. Jumping down, the Luchs and the T-50 start moving back to their team, while the T-44 stays back, just in case any enemies appear.

"Anyone called for a taxi?" Odysseus says loudly from the top of the Panther's turret, stopping next to Satsuki.

"You seem awfully calm and cheerful in this kind of situation," Satsuki comments as she climbs onto the engine deck.

"When you fight for too long, you just get used to these kinds of situations," Odysseus answers back with a grin.

The Panther, along the two T-44s start moving towards the teams, when Miho contacts Odysseus.

 _"Odysseus, get back to your team immediately, the enemy is attacking from the hill in great numbers!"_

At this, both Odysseus and Satsuki turn to look towards the hill, only to see a swarm of Japanese WW2 tanks descending it, running towards them at full speed. Even more terrifying are the three behemoths that appear on top of it. Almost as tall as the Maus, these gigantic, oily green colored tanks have a main turret in the center, armed with some kind of large-caliber howitzer. At their front are two smaller turrets, of which one is armed with a 47mm gun, while the other with a 7.7mm machine-gun. On its rear there is one more turret, armed with two 7.7mm machine-guns.

"I think we just stirred up a hornet's nest..." Odysseus says rather quietly, feeling her blood draining from her face. Satsuki isn't fairing any better, her legs trembling considerably at the sight of almost thirty tanks rushing towards them.

"Has anyone any idea what these mobile bunkers are!?" she yells at the radio, now being less than three hundred meters away from the teams, which have been moving their tanks in formations.

 _"Yukari says they resemble an O-I superheavy tank, but the only prototype that was ever built was scrapped,"_ Miho answers back.

"Then how the hell did these guys got in their hands three of them!?"

 _"Maybe someone is helping them? It could explain how they have so many troops,"_ Kay joins in this little conversation, offering a rather plausible explanation.

 _"It is possible, though that only creates more questions,"_ Darjeeling adds in _. "Why would a third party aid them and with what motive? Where did they find the resources and facilities to build all of these tanks?"_

 _"That's true! Nonna told me that these guys managed to build a factory in a week!"_ Katyusha informs the others. _"She said she spotted some armed guys that wore white suits and full-face helmets!"_

 _"Whatever the case, the enemy forces outnumber us, so a prolonged battle will not be in our favor,"_ Maho speaks up, trying to revert the attention back to the matter at hand.

 _"We have more firepower, so we should be able to deal with them quickly,"_ Kay says.

"We will know that soon enough. Everyone, wait for me to give the signal to fire; make sure to hit them; our ammunition situation isn't that good. Also, I want the Sherman Crocodile and the Churchill AVRE to move back to where the heavily injured are and try to shield them," Miho orders, and every tank that is still operable turns its cannon and points it at an enemy.

Miho carefully watches the enemy tanks as they pass the one kilometer mark, their cannons firing shells that either miss them, or harmlessly bounce off of the frontal plates of the tanks, the distance being too great for the AP shells to have enough kinetic force.

"Fire!" she yells and numerous thunderclaps echo in the air. Twenty enemy tanks go up in flames as they collide with a wall of shells. Despite that, the remaining ten keep charging towards the girls, their shells doing nothing more to them than simple paint-scratching.

 _"Enemy reinforcements incoming!"_ Kay shouts as she spots more enemy tanks descending the hill, along with trucks. _"They seem to have trucks with them, probably infantry!"_

 _"We need to move up, lest we want to put the injured in danger,"_ Darjeeling says calmly.

 _"Agreed. Team B, move forward!"_ Maho says and everyone starts moving towards the enemy.

"Team A, advance!" Miho says on the radio and her team starts moving forward.

The ten surviving tanks of the first wave are quickly dealt with, the tanks from both teams passing their flaming wrecks and setting their sights on the reinforcements.

Having closed the distance to five hundred meters, both sides start exchanging shots, bent on destroying the opposition once and for all.

The R.I.J.A. forces suffer heavy losses in that opening salvo, as ten of their tanks get destroyed, while being unable to deal any significant damage back.

 _*Boom*_

Well...almost no damage.

Maho looks in horror as the Tiger next to her gets blasted in the turret with an HE shell from one of the O-Is, the force of the explosion forcefully ripping it out from the turret ring and into the ground, the crew already dead from the shockwave.

Maho uses her hands to shield her face from the heat the explosion causes. Looking back at the now turret-less tank, she quickly grabs her radio to warn the others. "All units, concentrate fire on the O-Is!" she briefly stops speaking and dives into her tank, as machine-gun bullets start bouncing on her cupola. "They are using some kind of high-caliber howitzer, just like the KV-2 does!"

 _"Let Nonna and Nina deal with them!"_ Katyusha shouts back. _"If we divert all of our attention to them, the rest of the enemy tanks will swarm us!"_

"Just make sure you deal with them quickly!" Maho says back. Suddenly the whole tank shakes violently from side to side, as one of the huge HE shells lands next to their tank, the left tread and suspension holding up by a miracle.

"Nonna, Nina, target the big green tanks!" Katyusha says to the radio, peeking from the right side of her cupola's hatch, since it opens forwards.

 _"Da,"_ Nonna simply answers.

 _"Yes, commander Katyusha!"_ Nina answers back, and both the IS-3 and the KV-2 turn their turrets to aim their cannons at the O-I that is closer to them. Firing at the same time, the IS-3's 122mm AP shell manages to penetrate through the heavily armored, hexagonal turret of the superheavy tank, hitting the ammo rack and setting the shells on fire. Moments later, the KV-2's huge HE shell lands on the front of the hull, and the O-I stops moving altogether.

"First O-I down!" Katyusha yells, but the victory is short-lived, as one of the T-44s get hit in the upper hull plate by one of the O-Is and pops like a balloon.

To make matters worse, an even more dangerous for appears out of nowhere.

"Can anyone else hear blade rotors?" Katyusha asks and looks behind her, only to find to two Mil-Mi 24D Hinds fast approaching them. "Enemy helicopters on our rear!" she yells and dives back inside her tank. The helicopters perform a strafing run and fire their rocket pods, but only manage to destroy the remaining T-44 and create a lot more craters on the already scarred ground.

One of the helicopters heads towards the hill, while the other turns around and hovers in front of Maho's forces.

Maho freezes at the sight of the helicopter, as she spots what looks like missiles being launched from it. In less than four seconds, the rest of the Tiger Is, except hers, and a Königstiger get obliterated, the anti-tank missiles hitting their mark successfully. Maho looks through her cupola's vision ports in stunned silence, being unable to process what has just happened.

As the Hind gets ready to fire its rocket pods, a flurry of 20mm API shells rip it to shreds, the quadruple 2cm Flak 38 of the Flakpanzer hitting it in the fuselage and cockpit, turning it into Swiss cheese in less than six seconds. With no pilot to maintain control, the helicopter banks sideways and dives on top of the second O-I, resulting in a brilliant explosion that destroys both vehicles.

 _"Commander, are you alright!?"_ the Flakpanzer commander asks hastily in the radio, which Maho doesn't hear at first, her mind stuck at how easily four heavily armored tanks have been destroyed in such a small time-frame, along with their crews. _"Commander!"_

"Ah, y-yes, I'm alright. Keep track of the other Hind and try to shoot it down if you get the chance," she quickly answers back, though her voice stutters a little.

More enemies start pouring from the hill, the battle turning in favor of the R.I.J.A. as time passes on. And while Team B, or what remains of it, can barely hold the enemy forces from overrunning them, Team A has found themselves in a precarious position.

"Gunner, target the enemy at nine o'clock!" Rosehip says at the gunner, trying to keep her tea from spilling out of its cup.

"There are enemies everywhere!" the gunner says back, shooting at the side of a flanked Chi-To, the shot connecting and penetrating. "This one's down!"

A sneaky Chi-Nu that has taken advantage of the chaos has found itself directly behind Rosehip's Crusader, though it gets blown to oblivion by the modified Easy 8s, who are a few meters behind it.

Rosehip turns around just in time, as the last O-I hits one of the Easy 8s, the tank falling silent with a huge scorch mark on its front. "Driver, keep maneuvering! If we get hit by that thing, we are dead for!" she says to her driver, who keeps zig-zagging to avoid return fire from the enemy tanks.

 _"To all units, enemy infantry is using RPGs. Avoid them at all costs!"_ Miho's voice is heard through the radio, which makes Rosehip to develop a perplexed expression.

"RPGs? What are these exactly?" she wonders aloud.

"Rosehip, in front of us!" the driver yells and Rosehip spots a man rising from one of the trenches, holding a weird, shoulder-mounted weapon. The soldier fires it, and a warhead is propelled forward, aimed directly at the Crusader.

"Driver, hard left!" Rosehip yells in shock, after recognizing the weapon. The tank literally drifts to the left, the treads holding somehow under the strain of drifting. The RPG warhead misses the tank by a hair's width and hits the ground next to it.

"Take us back to Darjeeling!" she commands, and the tank starts moving back to the Churchill VII, which seems to have its own problems.

"Assam, two targets at eleven o'clock, closing in fast," Darjeeling says somewhat calmly, holding with her right hand a cup of tea.

"On it," Assam responds back, aiming the Churchill's cannon at the fast approaching Chi-Nus. Firing, she strikes the Chi-Nu on the left, the shell passing through the frontal armor with ease. As it slowly comes to a halt, either because the transmission got damaged or the driver is dead, Assam shoots another shell, this time on its turret, to make sure most of the crew has been taken out. The Chi-Nu on the right fires and its shell strikes the Churchill square on the front of the turret, but simply dents it a little at the impact point.

"Up!" the loader, who is replacing Orange Pekoe for this operation, says loudly, announcing the cannon is loaded. Assam aims at the remaining Chi-Nu and fires, this time hitting its ammorack and blowing it up in the air.

"Targets destroyed," Assam declares.

"Assam, target the enemy tanks on our left. Driver start moving backwards," Darjeeling orders, when she spots a sneaky Chi-Ri on her right. "Target on our three o'clock! Driver, traverse right!" she yells as the Chi-Ri fires and its shell strikes the side of the turret, exploding and leaving a big scorch mark. The whole Churchill shakes violently, its crew getting stunned momentarily.

"Are they firing HE!?" Assam says incredulously, keeping her face glued on the gunner's sight, ready to fire the moment the crosshairs fall upon the enemy.

"We aren't going to get lucky again, so make the shot count," Darjeeling says in a calm tone, though her right hand starts trembling from all the tension. It's a race against time for both combatants. Will the Churchill manage to bear its cannon on the enemy and fire first, or will the Chi-Ri manage to reload first?

"We aren't going to make it," Assam murmurs, sweat forming on her forehead. The Chi-Ri aims its cannon at the front driving will and fires, the AP shell badly denting it and destroying the right tread.

"The right tread has been destroyed!" the driver yells as the Churchill starts turning a lot slower. To make matters worse, the Chi-Ri starts circling around, stopping exactly behind the heavy tank and firing. The shell penetrates and sets the engine on fire, but thanks to the protective/fireproof wall between the crew compartment and the engine block, the girls pull through relatively unscathed.

"We are losing power!" Assam yells as the turret starts rotating slower and slower. The Chi-Ri elects to stay behind the Churchill and fire another shell in the engine to make sure the tank has been completely disabled, but before it can do just that, Rosehip's Crusader rams it in the front with enough force to move it backward, resulting in two things. First, the shell that gets fired from the Chi-Ri hits the edge of the engine block at such an angle, that it ricochets. Second, the Chi-Ri gets moved enough to stop in front of the Churchill's cannon. Assam fires just moments before the tank losses all power, and the shell hits the ammo rack, causing the shells to explode and the turret to be sent up in the air, before falling down on the ground, next to its burning body.

"We've lost all power, but the target is down," Assam sighs in relief.

"Everyone, exit the tank and take cover behind it," Darjeeling orders quickly.

As the girls exit through their respective hatches and take cover behind its right side, Darjeeling makes sure to pack the tea set, since it would be such a shame for such fine porcelain cups to be left here. Having packed the tea set, she pushes it out of the tank through her cupola, letting it rest on the turret's roof, then pulls herself out. Looking at her left for the tea set, she sees Rosehip's Crusader, and about a hundred meters away, the O-I aiming at her.

"Rosehip, get out of here now!" she yells, motioning frantically at her to move the tank away, but it is too late.

The O-I fires it's howitzer and the huge HE shell lands next to the Crusader, the force of the explosion causing it to roll on its roof, parts of the suspension flying everywhere, along with dirt and chunks of ground. One particular piece from the treads flies next to Darjeeling's head, almost hitting and crushing it. Darjeeling instinctively dives back to the tank, before emerging again from it and jumping down on the ground.

"Rosehip!" she yells as she runs to the overturned Crusader, which is resting on its left side. The O-I simply turns its turret to another target, seeing as the girls aren't a threat anymore. "Rosehip, are you okay!?"

Reaching the tank, she spots the hatch next to the driver's seat opening, and a girl with chestnut colored hair falling out of the tank, landing on her back.

"Ouch!" she groans, as she tries to push herself off the ground.

"Are you okay?" Darjeeling asks as she scans the girl's body. Her clothes are ripped in some places and her legs have multiple bruises, but other than that she seems fine. "Does it hurt anywhere?"

"I-I'm fine Miss Darjeeling. I must have sprained my ankle, that's all," the girl replies back, sitting on the ground. "But the rest of the crew is knocked out, and I think Rosehip has hit her head."

"Darjeeling!" Assam shouts as she and the rest of the Churchill crew rush to her location. "What happened? Is everyone okay?"

"The girl here has sprained her ankle and the rest are knocked out inside the tank," Darjeeling responds quickly. "Take the girl back to where the wounded are; I'll try to move out of the tank the rest of the girls."

Without wasting another second, Darjeeling enters the overturned Crusader, so Assam does as she has been instructed, while the driver and the loader of the Churchill wait to carry the rest of the unconscious girls.

* * *

 _"Miho, if we don't do anything, we will be overrun completely!"_ Miho hears Kay's voice yelling through the radio, the sounds of gunfire and cannon reports echoing in the background.

"We need to hold on for five more minutes!" Miho answers back, looking through her cupola's vision ports for enemies. "Hana, target at ten o'clock, one hundred and twenty meters."

 _"I don't know if we can hold for five more minutes!"_ Kay answers back, her voice slightly panicky.

"Saori, any luck with contacting HQ?" Miho asks.

"No luck thus far. And I can't contact the supposed reinforcements either. Seriously, where are these guys doing!?"

Miho is thinking furiously for a plan that could save them right now, even if it is a crazy one, like the one that was used to take down the Maus. Gambling on the reinforcements arriving on their time has costed them dearly, as a lot of the girls have either been injured or have died in horrible ways. And these lives have been lost thanks to her decisions. And because of her, most likely her friends will perish too.

Though something weird happens that gets her attention. The enemy... has stopped firing and even moving.

"To all units, cease fire immediately!" Miho says on the radio. An eerie silence permeates through the air, only the sound of running engines and rotor blades being heard.

 _"What just happened?"_ Katyusha asks, baffled by this turn of events.

 _"I bet the enemy finally acknowledged our superiority and decided to let us go,"_ Odysseus jokes playfully.

 _"This is NOT the time for jokes!"_ Erika angrily answers.

"Whatever the case," Miho says quickly, in order to make sure no quarrel will develop between the girls, now of all times. "I believe we will know soon enough."

 _"To the leader of the enemy forces. I'm General Tatsuhito, one of R.I.J.A's leaders. I ask that you surrender your forces, lest you want for this bloodbath to continue,"_ a voice is heard saying through the radio.

"Miporin, they are transmitting to the open channel!" Saori says back.

"Change to the open channel," Miho says to Saori, before picking her radio to speak. "General Tatsuhito, this is Nishizumi Miho, current leader of the combined Blackout/School Carrier forces. If we do surrender, can the safety of my forces be guaranteed?"

This come as a real shock to everyone, since Miho is implying that she is thinking about surrendering.

"Miss Nishizumi-!" Yukari tries to speak, but Miho motions her to remain quiet.

 _"A Nishizumi, huh? No wonder why it took most of our forces to corner you. Well, Miss Nishizumi, it depends on the course of action you take."_

"Give me some time to think about it."

 _"You have 3 minutes to decide,"_ Tatsuhito says in a neutral voice.

 _"Mihosha, you can't be serious! After what they did, you want to surrender!? They must pay for the blood of our friends that has been shed!"_ Katyusha yells, furious at Miho for even considering something so cowardly as the act of surrendering.

 _"I have to agree with her, Miho,"_ Odysseus says in a serious tone. _"His answer about our safety was really vague. I bet this guy has a plan for us, which is either bad or really bad."_

Miho motions to Saori to change back to the team's frequency.

 _"Listen Odysseus, I'm sure he is planning to do something with us, but we simply don't have any other choice. The reinforcements that should have arrived 10 minutes ago are nowhere to be seen, we are running low on ammunition and fuel and too many of us have died already. If surrendering means that the rest of the girls get to live another day, then so be it,"_ Miho answers back a bit harshly, the stress and fatigue finally catching up with her. _"It will also buy us more time until the reinforcements arrive."_

* * *

"You are the leader, you get the final say," Odysseus answers and puts the radio down.

"This is going to be one hell of a day," she murmurs to herself. Sighing deeply, she covers her eyes with her right hand momentarily.

"You can't blame her for making this decision," Reiji says to Odysseus. He keeps peering through the gunner's sights, aiming the cannon in one of the numerous enemy tanks, just in case negotiations fail.

 _"We surrender,"_ Miho's voice echoes through the radio.

"Goodbye mercenary life, welcome afterlife," Tyler says dejected, his face being really grumpy.

"Aren't you an optimistic one..." Annabelle deadpans, having turned to look at Tyler.

 _"Excellent. I ask that you have the crews of the tanks exit them and stand in front of them,"_ Tatsuhimo answers back.

"Annabelle, Tyler, go and stand in front of the tank; me and Reiji have something to do," Odysseus says with a slight smirk on her face.

"What are you planning?" Tyler asks with a frown, not sure what crazy plan his commander has thought this time.

"Let's just say that Reiji will be doing a little cosplaying as a WW2 Japanese soldier."

* * *

Miho puts down the radio and covers her face with both hands, really irritated that today nothing has gone as planned.

"I'm really sorry, girls, but it is the only way to make sure that more of us won't die and buy more time till the reinforcements arrive," Miho apologizes, her face adopting a bitter expression.

"Don't worry Miho, we understand," Hana says softly with a smile, grabbing with her right hand Miho's left shoulder.

"Don't worry Miss Nishizumi, I'm sure the others will understand too!" Yukari says cheerfully, trying to lift her commander's spirit.

"Wherever you lead us, we shall follow till the bitter end," Mako adds with a smile. "Like one and a half years ago."

"What Mako said!" Saori chimes in.

"Couldn't you say something more original?"

"Hey, it's not my fault you took all the good lines!"

Miho giggles a little, feeling a lot better. "Thanks, all of you. I really appreciate your words."

All of the girls smile at her, glad their commander is feeling better.

"Well, time to get out and see how much more time we can buy," Miho says in a serious expression. All the girls proceed to exit their tank and stand in front of it, waiting for further orders.

As Miho looks around, she can see that the enemy forces far outnumber hers, with twenty tanks, twenty-five trucks, infantry and an assault helicopter filling the battlefield, making her feel a little bit better for her decision to surrender...for now.

"They are so many!" Saori whispers in alarm, seeing just how many enemies there are.

"Don't forget the helicopter," Mako points at the hovering helicopter that keeps its 12.7mm nose gun trained on the girls. "And the rocket artillery that is hiding somewhere in the forest."

"Oh yeah, I had totally forgotten about them," Yukari says in surprise.

"Hey, stop pushing me! I can walk, you know."

Turning towards the origin point of the voice, they spot some of the enemy soldiers guiding the girls towards the center of the field.

"Excuse me, girls," they hear a man saying and turning forwards, they find a man with a WW2 uniform and an assault rifle. "I'll ask you to go towards the center of the field, where the rest of the girls are going. If you refuse to do as you are told, force will be used," he informs them, and the girls nod in response, complying with his orders.

"Seems like they are rounding us in one location to make sure no one tries anything funny," Mako says quietly to Miho, so that the man that "escorts" them won't overhear her.

"Seems like that," Miho answers back, then a question pops in her mind. "Excuse me, sir, but what about our wounded?" she turns slightly and asks the man.

"We send some of our medics to try and treat those that are heavily wounded, and a couple men to keep watch over them if they can't be moved."

"Aren't you awfully nice..." Mako comments sarcastically.

"Mako, you shouldn't say such things!" Saori scolds Mako for her comment, since they aren't exactly in the best of positions right now. The soldier says nothing, though he seems to be a little irritated.

As Miho and her team reach the point where the rest of the girls have been gathered, they spot another helicopter, identical to the one that is hovering close to them, approaching quickly from the hill and landing about forty meters away from them.

The ramp on the back of the helicopter opens, and from inside of it exit three men. One of them is quite obese and wears a really fancy WW2 era uniform and a peaked hat, while being flanked in both sides by the two other men that wear the standard WW2 I.J.A. uniform and hold from an assault rifle each.

"Girls, you stay here, " Miho orders her friends and then starts walking towards the obese man, who has stopped about twenty meters away from them. Although the soldiers are not raising their weapons, they do track her every step with their eyes, ready to attack at a moment's notice.

"Miho," Miho hears her sister calling her name, so she stops walking and turns to look back.

"Sister?" Miho asks as Maho reaches her.

"As the commander of the second team, i feel I'm obligated to participate in these "negotiations"," Maho says and Miho nods in understanding. Reaching the obese man and his bodyguards, Miho, like her sister, adopts a stoic expression, her face betraying no emotions whatsoever.

"You must be General Tatsuhito," Miho says in a neutral voice, looking at him with cold eyes.

"And you must be Nishizumi Miho," the obese man says in an equally neutral tone, looking at Miho and her sister. "And who this girl might be?" he inquires about Maho.

"The sub-leader," Miho responds curtly, not wanting to give him any information about her sister.

"I see. Well then, shall we-"

"Hey, don't drag me like that, you'll wrinkle my uniform!" Odysseus' obnoxious voice is heard through the battlefield and everyone turns to look at her. She is being dragged by a young boy with brown hair and hazel eyes that wears a WW2 uniform and a peaked hat, whom Miho is quick to recognize as Reiji.

 _What in the world are these two doing?_ Miho wonders incredulously in her mind, perplexed by what her eyes are seeing.

"You can't expect me to jump over this trench, do you?" Odysseus points at the trench that is a few steps behind Miho and Maho, her face dead serious.

"Move it, or I'll slash your throat," Reiji threatens, raising a calvary sword that he holds in his right hand and pointing it at Odysseus throat. Except for Miho and her team, no one has recognized who this boy really is, so most girls look either with curiosity or worry at what is going to happen next.

"Fine, fine, I'll jump," Odysseus pouts cutely at him, then jumps over the trench. "Oh, hey you two!" Odysseus waves at Maho and Miho.

"Odysseus, what are you doing here?" Miho asks in concern.

"You know, came to see who the new guy is," Odysseus cheerfully points at Tatsuhito, which earns more than a few glares from the soldiers, and plenty of perplexed looks or facepalms from the girls.

"Sir, I found this girl hiding behind one of the tanks. She claims to be one of the sub-leaders," Reiji informs and salutes Tatsuhito.

"At ease, officer," Tatsuhito says at him, so Reiji relaxes his posture.

"A private, Sir, not an officer," Reiji bows slightly at the general. "This hat is a family heirloom that was handed to my family by my great grandfather, who was an officer in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War 2."

"I believe he would have been proud seeing you doing your country such a great service."

"I'd like to believe he would have been."

"Were you part of the defence forces?"

"Yes sir, though I was knocked out during the attack."

"I see. Then private, I believe you have earned a reprieve," Tatsuhito says.

"With all due respect, Sir, I'd like to stand guard next to the girls, in case they try to do anything that may be harmful for you," Reiji bows.

"Very Well, Private, I'll allow it," Tatsuhito says, then turns his attention back to Miho. "Where was I? Ah, yes. I have a proposition for you, Miss Nishizumi."

"A proposition?" Miho asks curiously, albeit with a twinge of hesitation.

"Yes. Since you and your forces have demonstrated outstanding skills in combat, I'd like for you to join our cause. In exchange, I'll personally guarantee for your safety."

"I refuse," Miho instantly shoots back, not giving the proposal even a moment of thinking.

"That is regrettable," Tatsuhito says and turns to face Maho, crossing his hands behind his back. "Would you consider my offer?"

"No," Maho curtly replies, her stoic expression never changing.

"I'm interested," Odysseus says out of the blue, raising her right hand like she is in school. Both Miho and Maho turn to look at her in shock, unable to grasp why she would ever say such a thing.

"What are you doing, Odysseus!?" Miho gawks at the blonde girl, who turns to look with a confused expression, tilting her head slightly to the left.

"What do you mean, Miho?" she asks. "I'm doing whatever I can to keep my crew safe."

"So, you will betray your friends and your organization?" Maho asks in disgust, as Odysseus walks in front of Tatsuhito. Naturally, this draws the looks of the rest of the girls, who wonder what is going on.

"Hey, I'm a mercenary. I only pledge allegiance to the highest bidder," she says, making a shrug. Turning back to Tatsuhito, she smiles at him. "So, if I join you, will you guarantee my crew's safety? They are a girl with red hair and green eyes, and a boy with blond hair and blue eyes."

"I will guarantee their safety, but," Tatsuhito retrieves a Smith & Wesson .44 Magnum from a holster strapped on his right leg, and hands it to Odysseus. "You have to show your loyalty to the cause."

Odysseus looks for a moment at the revolver, then on Tatsuhito. "I understand," she says in a neutral voice and switches the revolver's safety to off.

"Odysseus, what did he give you?" Miho asks in concern, but no response is given back.

"Hey, Miho," Odysseus says slowly, her voice as cold as snow. She quickly turns and points the revolver at Miho's abdomen, her eyes betraying no emotions, clear of any hint of guilt, remorse, desperation or even killing intent. "Do me a favor and die."

"What-"

She never finishes speaking, as the revolver is fired and a powerful .44 Magnum bullet strikes her square in the gut with such force that she gets lifted in the air a few millimeters above the ground, before falling down and rolling inside the trench that is a few steps behind her, disappearing from everyone's vision.

Each and every one of the girls looks at Odysseus' direction with shocked expressions, their eyes as wide as they can be. Even Reiji is barely able to keep his acting, his hands trembling ever so slightly, don't expecting this at all.

 **"Mihoooo!"** Maho screams in terror, her stoic expression shattering like a mirror instantly. She tries to run towards Miho, but Odysseus grabs her by the back of the collar of her shirt and pulls her down on the ground, before pressing her left foot against her chest, and aiming the barrel of the revolver on her face.

"Anyone moves or even twitches, I'll introduce her brains to the ground!" she says loudly and all the girls freeze in place. Odysseus can feel the death glares from them, and how some would love to wrap their delicate fingers around her neck and squeeze as hard as they can, but this barely affects her. If anything, she finds it kinda annoying.

"Y-You, why would you do something like that!?" Maho yells, trying to move Odysseus foot from her chest, her face showing nothing but anger. "She was your friend! How could you kill her!"

"Shut up, you will ruin my performance," Odysseus replies with a bored expression, then steps off Maho and turns to Tatsuhito to give him his revolver back. "Is this enough to show my loyalty to your cause?"

"For now it is. Follow me; we have much to discuss," Tatsuhito nods, then turns to the man on his right. "Have the men subdue the girls and load them into the trucks. If they won't join us willingly, we will make them to."

"Yes sir!" the man salutes and runs off to inform the rest of the soldiers.

Tatsuhito then turns to walk back to the landed Hind, accompanied by a soldier to his left.

"Reiji," Odysseus says and signals him subtly to take down the escorting soldier, while she unsheaths her knife and walks behind Tatsuhito. Reiji points his sword at the back of the soldier's neck and thrusts it with as much force as he can, causing the blade to cleanly pass through it. Odysseus then grabs Tatsuhito and places a knife in his throat.

"OK, everyone stop moving!" she yells, and all the soldiers look at her in surprise, instantly raising their weapons to aim at her. Reiji simply stands besides Odysseus, resting his sword's blade against Tatsuhito's abdomen.

Now the girls have even more confused faces than before, trying to understand in which side Odysseus really is.

"I thought we had a deal," Tatsuhito frowns.

"Well, I never accepted your offer. Plus, who would accept such offer? Your cause is just a pipe dream," she smirks at him, as she looks at the soldiers, the tanks, and the helicopter that are aiming their weapons at her. "When you have a PMC like Blackout running around, you'd need more than obsolete tech to destroy them."

"So, it was all an act to get near me," Tatsuhito makes a guess and Odysseus smirks even more.

"Correct!" Odysseus laughs a little. "Aren't you a bright one?"

"You have no honor. To use your friend like an expendable pawn in order to have a chance to corner me... You disgust me."

"I mean, honor and pride won't fill my stomach or stop bullets from hitting me," Odysseus shrugs. "Plus, I view these girls as nothing more then assets, tools to be wielded in order to advance my own agenda."

To say that the girls aren't happy with her choice of words would be the understatement of the century, but she seems oblivious to the fact that she is digging her own grave.

"Hmph, so you are one of those people who like to manipulate others."

"You are right in the fact that I do like seeing people dancing at the palm of my hand, but it's not my main method of dealing with problems," she says softly and her face darkens considerably, a twisted grin etching itself on her face. "What I really love is spilling blood." This send shivers up the spines of anyone who can she her face.

"Commander," Reiji says, hearing a light buzzing noise that rapidly gets louder and louder. Everyone starts looking all over the sky, trying to find the noise's source.

"Well, it seems the angels have descended upon the Earth to punish you, General. Let us witness the fall of a mighty empire together, as your sun sets forever," she whispers, as three jets appear out of nowhere and perform a bombing run, destroying most of the enemy units and shooting down the enemy Hind. Then they change into VTOL mode and start engaging any remaining units, as four massive helicopters appear, along with four Apache Longbows that escort them. The girls take this moment to run back at their tanks and take cover behind them. Exceptions are Maho and Miho's team, who rush into the trench where Miho disappeared, presumably dead.

"Well then, since that is out of my way, let's get to the fun part where you tell us everything you know." Odysseus pushes Tatsuhito on the ground, then extends her right hand towards Reiji. "Reiji, if you would."

Reiji hands Odysseus his sword and she uses it to stab Tatsuhito on his right side with enough force that the blade passes through him and gets lodged a few centimeters on the ground, effectively pinning him on it.

 **"Aaaaagh!"** he screams in pain, feeling his blood slowly trickling through his wounds.

Odysseus takes his revolver and goes in front of him, sitting on the ground with crossed legs. "Well then, how about we play a quiz? I'll ask you three questions, and if I like the answer, I'll give you one hundred points. If you manage to get three hundred points, I won't kill you, but should I not like the answer, I'll shoot one of your elbows or knees, so you better behave!" she says cheerfully, waving a finger at him.

"Commander, aren't you taking this too far?" Reiji asks in concern, seeing that his commander is treating an interrogation like a game.

"Nah, it's totally fine," Odysseus waves her hand dismissively. "Why don't you go check on Annabelle and Tyler, or even change your uniform, before anyone shoots you?" she asks, so Reiji goes away. "Now then, let the game begin!"

"You are sick to the head!" Tatsuhito growls.

"Of course! After all, I have more than a few loosened screws on my head," she laughs and points the barrel of the revolver on her head for a second, then raises a single finger. "Question number one. What would you have done with the girls after loading them in the trucks?"

"We would take them in one of our secret bases, then brainwash them to join us. If they still refused, we would keep them confined in the base, until they would either join us or die."

"What an honest answer. One hundred points to you! Question number two. Where are the rest of your buddies?"

"I will never-"

Odysseus fires the revolver at his right elbow, the bullet completely destroying it.

"Wrong answer. But since I'm so benevolent, I'll give you one more chance," Odysseus says over the man's screams, pressing the revolver's barrel on his forehead. "Now talk."

"F-Fine, I'll talk, I'll talk. The rest of the high-ranking members have evacuated in China and Australia," Tatsuhito says, trying to withstand the pain of his destroyed elbow that is slowly numbing.

"Good boy. Here's another hundred points for you," Odysseus says playfully. "Now, onto the final question! Who the fuck gave you enough resources and manpower to build these fucking things, cause I'm sure there are no WW2 tanks lying around for you to salvage. Not to mention the Hinds."

"A...An unknown organization approached us a few months ago and offered to help us with our plan to unite Japan. We were reluctant at first, but seeing that the PMC known as Blackout was a lot stronger than expected and that the JSDF was still kicking, we ultimately accepted their offer," Tatsuhito answers Odysseus' question.

"Perfect! Here are another one hundred points! That's three hundred points in total. Congratulations, you get to live for another day!" she exclaims, but cocks the hammer of the revolver back. **"Is what I'd normally say, but you get a penalty of minus one million points for all the girls you killed."** Her face remains as innocent as a kid's, yet her eyes are empty, devoid of any emotion.

"Just who you really are?" Tatsuhito groans, looking Odysseus straight in the eyes, feeling his very soul trembling in fear.

"Who I am?" Odysseus repeats, making a pondering expression and tilting her head slightly. "You could say I am one of Death's many daughters, tasked with reaping the souls of those who must die." Her face gradually gets emotionless, just like her eyes, and her voice turns apathetic. "I am a Grim Reaper known as White." Odysseus then stands up and speaks one final phrase, ready to fire the handgun. "May your afterlife be a snowy plain of eternal silence."

"You have gone far enough, Odysseus," Annabelle says with a serious tone from the right side of her and grabs her right wrist tightly.

"Let go of my hand, Annabelle," Odysseus says in an equally serious tone, glaring daggers at her friend.

"Or else what? You'll shoot me too?"

"If I have too."

"Try me," Annabelle dares Odysseus and lets off her hand. Odysseus instantly snaps her aim at Annabelle's head. "Come on, pull the trigger! We don't have all day, you know!"

Odysseus looks at Annabelle one more time, then puts the revolver's safety on and throws it away.

"Seems like nothing scares you," she jokes, but Annabelle is barely amused. "OK, I'm sorry for acting like that," she quickly apologizes.

"Don't apologize to me, but to Miho and the others," Annabelle says quickly with a frown, pointing at the part of the trench where Miho had fallen.

"Fine, I'll go after-"

"Youuuu!" someone yells and tackles Odysseus on the ground.

"Gaaah!" Odysseus yells in pain, as she gets tackled on top of a protruding rock, which hits her on the right side of her lower back. Looking at who tackled her, she finds Erika on top of her, an expression of pure hatred on her face, tears running from her eyes.

"How could you kill her like that!?" she yells and punches Odysseus on the face. "She was your friend and comrade, wasn't she!?"

She tries to land another hit, but this time Odysseus catches her fist and punches her in the face with enough force to make her get off of her. The fight attracts the curiosity of most of the girls, trying to understand what is going on.

"I didn't kill her, you brainless guard dog!" Odysseus groans loudly, gritting her teeth in response to the pain she is feeling. Annabelle rushes to her side and helps her to stand up.

"But you shot her in cold blood!" Erika shouts back. "Like it was nothing! You don't even have a single shred of remorse or guilt for your actions!"

"My actions are what saved all of us! If it weren't for what I did, you would have been loaded into the trucks and taken only God knows what place, not to mention what they would do to you!" she harshly says back.

"Erika, stand down!" Maho orders her vice-commander. She and Yukari are supporting Miho, since she still can't stand on her own, with the rest of the Anglerfish waiting at the edge of the trench to pull her up. "Miho is alive; the vest stopped the bullet and absorbed most of its force."

"See? I knew that she wouldn't die!" Odysseus points at Miho, who seems to be in pain.

"And how on earth did you know that!?" Erika asks incredulously.

"I've heard a rumor back at base that-"

"You based everything on a rumor!?" This time Erika gawks at her, unable to believe what she is hearing.

"Erika, come and help us out," Maho says loudly at her, so Erika glares at Odysseus one final time, before walking towards her commander and the rest.

"Bunch of unappreciative pussies, each one of them," Odysseus frowns.

"Well, you did pull an extremely risky and crazy plan, as usual," Tyler says, as he and Reiji approach her and Annabelle.

"Out of curiosity, what would happen if the rumor you had heard was false?" Reiji asks, now back to his normal uniform.

"Probably would have been skinned alive by everyone here," Odysseus murmurs, looking all around her. The enemy units are either dead or have surrendered and Blackout personnel is all over the place. "I'm going to the tank, need to clean all the blood that has spilled inside it. You are free to do whatever the fuck you want!" she waves her hand tiredly, as she walks to the Panther S.

"I'll go with her, just to be sure," Annabelle says to the boys and quickly follows behind Odysseus.

"That's a first," Tyler says in surprise, raising an eyebrow. "Odysseus giving us free time while on a mission? Something's definitely not right."

"Well, the whole day has been nothing but surprises." Reiji comments looking all around him. "Never thought I'd fight next to Senshadou legends in a battlefield when I joined Blackout."

"Or that you'd get to see so many of them die in one." Tyler adds, looking at all the smoking wrecks of vehicles.

"I guess the operation's name fits well with how things turned up."

"Yep. This battle has been the downfall of both the enemy and us."

"Peace to the fallen," Reiji says, closing his eyes and lowering his head slightly for a moment.

"Peace to the fallen," Tyler says too, mimicking Reiji.

* * *

 **A/N: Took over a month to complete, but it was totally worth it! Next one is Odysseus' past. I'd love to write something more in this section, so I'll say thank you for waiting over a month for this chapter to be rewritten.** **A** **nyway, a** **s always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and** **there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**


	10. Chapter 10: Codename White

**The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 10: Codename White**

* * *

 **Wednesday 25th of May, 2 Y.A.**

 **One hour after the conclusion of Operation Downfall**

"Ouch," Miho groans as she feels a stabbing pain in her left breast and the area below it, at the place where she had been shot by Odysseus.

"Please be patient, we are almost done," the nurse that is treating her injury says, applying a bandage around her chest. "You are very lucky the vest managed to withstand the revolver bullet. It could have easily killed you."

Miho looks on her left from the box in which she is sitting and next to it on the ground lays the experimental vest with a deformed revolver bullet lodged in it.

"You don't say," Miho mutters, gazing solemnly at the ruined vest, her mind unwillingly wondering what would have happened if the vest had failed to stop the lethal projectile and had pierced through it. One thing's for sure, she wouldn't be standing here right now thinking of this alternative. "Say, do you know what happened to the enemy general? Tatsuhito's the name, if I remember correctly."

"He died due to excessive blood loss. He also had severe internal hemorrhage from a stab wound that pierced his liver and a completely destroyed elbow. Whoever stabbed that guy with the sword, they made sure he wouldn't live."

With one final tug to make sure that the bandage is tightly secured, which causes Miho to grunt slightly in pain, the nurse pats Miho on the back to indicate that she's done.

"We are done. The bruise should be gone in about four to seven days, just make sure not to aggravate it any more," she informs Miho, who nods back as she puts on her uniform's shirt and jacket that she had removed for the nurse to check on her injury.

"Thanks and have a nice day," she says at the nurse, before starting to walk towards the lowered ramp of the massive helicopter she has found herself into. She silently wonders how these behemoths can even fly, let alone for what they have been constructed to transport. As she steps out of the massive helicopter and down its loading ramp, she spots three certain girls approaching her.

"Miporin!" Saori waves at her, as she, along with Hana and Mako, approach their leader.

"How are you feeling, Miho?" Hana asks politely with a calming smile.

"I'm fine, just a bruise here," Miho points over her uniform at where she was shot.

"You know, if the bullet was of bigger caliber or you had been shot at a closer range, you could have died," Mako says in her usual monotone voice.

"But luckily I didn't," she sighs, but then notices that a certain someone is missing. "Say, where is Yukari?"

Before anyone can speak, Mako raises a finger and points behind Miho towards her left, and something slams at her side, almost tackling her to the ground and causing her injury to flare up with a little bit of pain.

"Miss Nishizumi, I'm so glad you are okay!" Yukari almost yells in relief, wrapping her hands around Miho and squeezing her tightly.

"Y-Yukari, you are hurting me," Miho says quickly and so Yukari reluctantly lets Miho from her hug.

"I-I'm sorry, Miss Nishizumi, I was just happy to see you are fine," she says with an awkward smile.

"Don't worry about it. Are you girls alright?" she asks her friends and they all nod in response. As the girls keep chatting, a man that wears a black military uniform almost similar to the one the girls wear approaches them and coughs once to get their attention.

"Ahem, are you Miss Nishizumi?" he asks Miho politely.

"Yes, how can I help you?" Miho asks the man.

"We are starting to load the tanks for transport, so I'd like to ask you to move your tank for loading," he says and points with his thumb over his right shoulder in the distance, where one of these massive helicopters Miho was a few minutes ago slowly descends to land and unload its cargo. Though frankly speaking, these helicopters look more like huge boxes that someone took massive rotor blades and slammed them on top of it and hoped they would fly. Or Chinook helicopters on steroids, whichever fits your fancy.

"Girls, can I ask you to take care of it?" Miho asks her friends. "I want to go check on my sister and the others."

"Leave it to us, Miss Nishizumi!" Yukari says excitedly, snapping a rather professional salute for a moment.

"But I want to sleep," Mako grumbles.

"Mako, you can't sleep during work! What would your Grandma say!?" Saori berates her, before dragging her towards the tank.

"But I am an adult now, I can do whatever I want!" she grumbles back to Saori.

"We will catch up with you once we are done," Hana says, before she and Yukari follow Saori and Mako.

"Before you go, can I ask you to find the commander of the Antelope team and inform her about the loading?" the man asks Miho a final time. "I looked around the helicopters, but I couldn't find her anywhere."

"Antelope team?" Miho gives the man a confused expression. "Oh, you mean Odysseus! Yeah, I'll keep it in mind."

"Thanks. If you'll excuse me now."

The man snaps a salute and goes away, so Miho starts walking to the helicopter that is next to the one in which she was inside a few minutes ago.

Entering the helicopter from the rear loading ramp, Miho scans the interior and notices that there are a few differences from the one she was inside before. In its floor there are built-in collapsible medical beds that can be set up at a moment's notice. There is also a cabinet full of medical equipment and supplies at the end of the loading bay near the cockpit, clearly indicating that the interior has been modified to act as a field hospital. Scanning the interior, she spots Rosehip sitting on the edge of one of the collapsible beds and next to her is sitting Darjeeling and Assam, who quietly converse with her. On the bed across them sit Nonna, Klara and Katyusha, with Katyusha sitting between her vice-commanders, all of them listening to the conversation of the St. Gloriana girls and making their own remarks here and there. Looking around the interior a bit more, she also spots a few black body bags further inside, which contain the bodies of the ones that didn't make it...or parts of the bodies in some cases. So many lives lost in a matter of mere hours, it really weighs heavily on her shoulders, and the constant questions of "what if she had done something differently" that pop in her head constantly are definitely not helping her either.

Pushing those thoughts aside for the moment, she starts walking towards the girls and soon gets spotted by the bandaged Rosehip, who has bandages wrapped around her head and right hand.

"Miss Miho!" Rosehip waves at Miho and the rest of the girls turn to look at her.

"Hey girls," Miho greets the girls as she reaches them, who in turn greet her back. "How are you, Rosehip?" she asks, seeing Rosehip's bandaged head and multitude of bruises her arms, and probably legs, have.

"I'm fine, just a few bumps in my head and a couple of bruises here and there," Rosehip says, though less energetically than usual.

"You call a light concussion a few bumps? You were unconscious for almost half an hour. Not to mention you should be resting right now," Assam says to Rosehip.

"But I feel fine! Well, except for the slight headache I have or this nauseating feeling that seems to be gripping my stomach."

"You should do like the nurse said and rest for the next two days."

"How are you, Pirozki?" Katyusha asks Miho, as Rosehip keeps talking with Assam, trying to convince her that she doesn't need to rest. "Getting shot with a revolver must have hurt, no?"

"It hurt a lot, but at least the vest managed to withstand the hit. Though it gave me a really big bruise," Miho points over her left breast and under it to show where the bruise is.

"What I'd like to know is why would Elpida shoot you," Assam inquires quietly. "Me and Darjeeling where with the wounded girls, so we weren't able to see what was going on at the time. We only heard the gunshot and your sister screaming your name."

"From what the girls told me, it was a plan she came up with on the spot to cause the enemy leader to lower his guard and take him as a hostage to buy more time for us until the reinforcements arrive."

"But couldn't she come up with another way to buy time?" Katyusha asks with curiosity.

This time Darjeeling speaks up.

"Although I don't condone her actions, they can be justified. Think about it, Katyusha. We were surrounded by armed soldiers, outside of our tanks and with no way of defending ourselves. The circumstances didn't allow for any means of buying more time for us, much less escape. Yet she managed to come up with a plan to save us."

"What are you talking about, girls?"

Turning to she who spoke, the girls spot Kay approaching them.

"Oh, Kay, how are you?" Miho asks as Kay reaches them.

"Fine, though not in the best of moods," she states in a grim voice. "Anyway, what are you talking about?"

"About Odysseus and why she shot me with a revolver."

"Ah, that blonde commander with the weird Panther. I'm more amazed that she convinced that enemy soldier with the sword to side with us."

"Actually, that was the gunner of her crew. His name is Reiji, if I remember correctly."

"But wasn't he wearing the enemy's uniform?" Katyusha blurts out. "And he was acting like he was one of them."

"Kid must have some serious acting skills," Kay comments.

"Excuse me, Miho, but how much do you know about her?" Klara asks out of the blue.

"Hm? You mean Odysseus?" Miho asks and Klara nods. "Not much, only that she and Annabelle, who is her driver, were transfer students in St. Gloriana. They joined Blackout about one month ago, so not much are known about them. Though Yukari had heard about an incident both of them were involved." At this, both Darjeeling and Assam start paying more attention to Miho, interested in this accident. "Though we don't really know what kind of accident, or even if it was one. Why do you ask?"

"When she was about to kill the enemy general, just before that red-haired girl stopped her, she called herself 'White'." This time is Nonna who speaks up. "Klara thought that since you work for the same organization, you might have known something about it."

"Sorry, but I don't know anything," Miho shakes her head slowly. "Darjeeling, Assam, do you know anything about her past? Since they have been transfer students to your school."

"We tried running a basic background check on her, as we do with every transfer student, but we couldn't find anything, which is really peculiar. It's like she never existed before coming to Japan."

"Then this 'White' nickname might have to do something with her past," Kay suggests.

"What if it isn't a nickname, but a codename?" Nonna says and everyone turns to look at her. "Miho, from which country is she?"

"If I remember correctly, Yukari had told me she is from Greece."

"Three years ago, there was a really big war in the Balkan region. Klara has told me about it because it was all over the news in Russia back then. It might sound as a stretch, but what if she had fought in that war as a special operative?" Nonna offers a suggestion, but everyone forms an expression of disbelief immediately.

"That wouldn't have been possible. When she transfered in our academy, she was sixteen years old. It would be impossible for her to participate in a war as a normal soldier, much less as a special operative," Darjeeling immediately says, finding Nonna's suggestion implausible.

"I have to agree with Darjeeling. It wouldn't make sense for someone who is fifteen or sixteen to fight in a war," Kay agrees with Darjeeling.

"But her movements were too...how should I describe it...fluid," Klara says, trying to defend Nonna's idea. "Either she is a veteran of war or she has received advanced training in hand to hand combat."

"Furthermore, she seems to be mentally unstable, which suggests that something really traumatic must have happened to her," Nonna adds.

"Mentally unstable? Why would you say that?" Miho asks, curious why Nonna would say Odysseus is mentally unstable. Sure, she might act in a childish manner, but that shouldn't guarantee such characterization.

"When she was interrogating the enemy general, she treated the whole interrogation like a game. No sane person should ever draw pleasure or entertainment from the suffering of others."

An eerie silence fills the air between the girls. Only the voices of the other girls that are lying or are seated in some of the other collapsible beds inside the interior of the massive helicopter can be heard for a few moments, before Katyusha speaks up.

"Nonna, Klara, let's go and find Odysseus and ask her about her past!" she exclaims, so Nonna picks up Katyusha and puts her on her shoulders, before walking out of the helicopter with Klara walking besides them.

"This can't possibly end well," Kay says slowly as the rest of them follow the Pravda Girls with their gazes.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" Miho suddenly says, then turns to face the others. "I need to inform Odysseus of something, so I'll talk to you later. If you'll excuse me."

And with this, she quickly exits the helicopter and starts looking around for her. Not seeing the tall commander or her tank anywhere, she goes over to the massive helicopter that is next to the one that she was in and peers inside, quickly scanning the interior. Finding only a few wounded girls from Pravda, along with two nurses that watch over them and more black body bags, she quickly continues her search by walking towards another massive helicopter that is, yet again, next to the one she has just checked, but before entering, she spots Reiji exiting from it, holding a bandage roll.

"Ah, good afternoon Commander Nishizumi," Reiji greets Miho politely when he sees her.

"Good afternoon, Reiji," Miho says back. "Do you know where Odysseus is? I need to inform her about something."

"Odysseus? She is with Annabelle at the edge of the forest," he informs Miho, pointing towards the edge of the forest that is about two hundred meters away.

"At the edge of the forest? What are they doing there?"

"I don't really know, but Annabelle did tell me to bring them a bandage roll, so I guess she wants to treat Odysseus' injuries, if she has any."

"But, couldn't one of the nurses in the helicopters treat them?"

"They could, but Odysseus...let's say that she has her own reasons for not wanting to get treated by them," Reiji says slowly, which Miho finds rather weird. "Since you mentioned that you want to speak with her, do you mind giving them the bandage roll too? I need to go check something on the tank and I have no idea where Tyler is, since I haven't seen any hordes of girls running around." Reiji says the last part so seriously that Miho isn't sure if Reiji is making fun of his friend or he really means it.

"Sure, I don't mind," Miho tells Reiji and he hands her the bandage roll.

Waving goodbye at him, Miho starts walking towards the edge of the forest, where Reiji had pointed. After a minute or two of walking, she reaches the forest and immediately hears two familiar voices talking.

"My back hurts so much. That bitch just had to tackle me on top of a fucking rock!"

"Well, you should have seen this one coming, cause you totally deserved it. And please don't use profanities."

"I'll curse and whine as much as I want, alright? You aren't my mother to tell me what I should and shouldn't do!"

As Miho passes through the first few rows of trees, she spots both Odysseus and Annabelle sitting next to each other on the trunk of a fallen tree. Besides the two girls sits a bucket full of bloodied water and a bloodied towel. Odysseus' vest, gloves and some parts of her pants are still covered in the blood of the guy who tried to stab Odysseus with a sword, though the blood has long since dried.

"What are you, a twelve-year-old rebelling against its parents?" Annabelle snickers lightly.

"Fuck off!" Odysseus yells at her friend, crossing her arms and turning away from Annabelle.

"Ohhhh, Odysseus has devolved into a lil' tsundere."

"Shut up! It's not like I like you or anything, b-baka!" Odysseus says in a stereotypical tsundere fashion that has the desired effect of making Annabelle burst into laughter.

"Uhm...what are you doing girls?" Miho asks with a puzzling expression. Since both girls had been talking in English, Miho wasn't able to fully understand them thanks to their accents; she only understood a few words here and there.

"Oh, hey Miho!" Odysseus greets her excitedly. "We were just messing around with each other."

"We are waiting for Reiji to bring a bandage roll so that I can treat Odysseus' injury on her back," Annabelle says and then notices the object Miho is holding. "What a coincidence, you have brought a bandage roll yourself."

"Reiji gave it to me. I was looking for Odysseus to inform her about something and happened to find him by chance. Since I told him I was looking for her, he asked me if I could bring you the bandage roll," she says and hands Annabelle the bandage roll, who takes it and thanks her for it.

"So, what did you want to tell me?" Odysseus asks as she starts removing her vest and the top of her uniform for Annabelle to be able to bandage her bruised lower back at where the rock hit her.

"A soldier came up to me and told me that they were starting to load the tanks in the helicopters, and since he couldn't find you he asked me if I-" Miho abruptly stops when Odysseus removes her shirt, the words getting stuck on her throat and her eyes slowly widening.

"If you...?" Odysseus asks as she sets her shirt over the vest that is next to her on top of the trunk she is sitting.

Miho doesn't register Odysseus' words at first, her eyes glued on Odysseus' body that is littered with scars that range from tiny grazes to gashes. Two particularly deep gashes seem to run from the right side of her lower abdomen all the way up to her left collarbone, forming a really crude V on her. Also, there is a small black tattoo on the side of her left upper arm that comprises of a small cross that has a pair of small, feathered wings behind it and is inside a hollow circle.

"Earth to Miho, do you copy?" Odysseus asks, waving her hand in front of Miho.

Snapping out of her shocked surprise, Miho quickly composes herself.

"S-Sorry, I was just-"

"Surprised by the scars?" Odysseus cuts Miho short, gesturing at her own arms and front of the body. "Yeah, most normal people react that way, nothing to be worried about. Anyway, what did you want to tell me?"

"W-Well, the soldier asked me if I could inform you that you need to load your tank in one of the transport helicopters," Miho answers, looking at Annabelle who is wrapping some of the bandage roll around Odysseus' waist and abdomen.

"That's it? I thought it was something more serious. Whatever, I'll just have Annabelle go and move the tank-ouch!" Odysseus suddenly yelps as Annabelle tightens the bandage, causing it to press against the bruise.

"Hey, what was that for!?" she demands from her friend who finishes treating her.

"Hmm? I just tightened the bandage to make sure it won't come off," Annabelle responds with a polite smile that is anything but polite.

"Suuure..." Odysseus says dryly, rolling her eyes lightly. "Before I forget it, Miho, I'm really sorry for shooting you with the revolver, but it was the only chance we had at buying more time for the reinforcements to arrive and save us."

"You don't need to apologize for it," Miho say quickly with a smile. "From what the girls told me, it really does seem like it was the only viable tactic at that time. Though it did hurt a lot."

"Yeah...it must have...ehehehe, sorry," Odysseus laughs awkwardly, then swiftly puts on her uniform's shirt, jacket and her bulletproof vest and then quickly stands up.

"Anyway, let's go load the tank and get the hell out of here. I still reek of blood," she grimaces as she takes a lock of her hair and smells it, the scent of blood still in it even after Annabelle's successfull efforts of wiping off the blood stains that marred their blonde color.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Annabelle interrupts.

"Uhm...no?"

"Uhm...yes? You still need to apologize to Maho, I think was her name, for shooting Miho. Not to mention you kinda pushed her on the ground and pointed the revolver on her face."

"You pointed a gun at my sister?" Miho asks with a surprised tone, since no one told her about that detail.

"Yes I did, but it was in order to dissuade the other girls from running to you and probably give the enemy a really good excuse of starting to spray bullets everywhere. Let me tell you, when your sister tried to run to you, I spotted at least half a dozen people who were about to raise their firearms at her," Odysseus quickly explains in order to avoid any misunderstandings that might be created. "It was all an act to keep up appearances."

An awkward silence ensues between the three girls, which quickly is broken by Annabelle.

"Well, before things get even more awkward, do you know where your sister is, Miho?" Annabelle asks.

"No," Miho shakes her head. "Though I think she might be in the helicopter with the wounded from Kuromorimine."

"Could you accompany Odysseus there, then, since I need to go and load the tank? Annabelle asks politely with a smile. "I don't trust Odysseus in going alone."

"Hey, it's not like I'll run away!" Odysseus says in her defense, though Annabelle's piercing gaze quickly makes Odysseus to look away from her. "OK, maybe I will if Erika is there."

"There you go, wasn't too difficult to admit it, was it?"

And with this, the three girls exit the forest, but not before Annabelle empties the bucket with the bloody water and takes it along with the towel to get them back to their tank.

As Miho and Odysseus silently walk towards one of the massive helicopters that Miho hasn't checked yet, she notices something rather worrisome as they pass near some girls that are from the carriers.

"The others don't seem to like you that much, do they?" she says quietly at Odysseus, noticing the sour expressions the girls make upon seeing the blonde commander.

"With what I did and said, I'm surprised they aren't throwing rocks at me."

"Isn't that a bit...extreme?"

"When I said that I view them as nothing more than mere assets to advance my own agenda? Hardly," she says with a serious expression, turning to look at Miho. "And it seems like it really got on the nerves of the girls from Kuromorimine. Do you know anything about it?"

Miho shakes her head slowly.

"I haven't been in Kuromorimine for three years now, and the last two I had no contact with them. So I don't know why it would affect them more than the others."

"Whatever, then. Though I'd expect at least some of them to understand that it was all an act! Sure, I'm really good at deception, but they can't be that dumb!"

Miho says nothing in response, opting to not continue the conversation. After a minute or two, she and Odysseus reach one of the massive helicopters and peer inside through the lowered ramp and luckily for Miho (not so luckily for Odysseus), Maho and Erika are , conviniently enough, sitting in one of the collapsible beds near the ramp, talking to each other. A few beds further inside lies a sleeping Ritaiko, with a worried Satsuki sitting at the edge of the bed, waiting for her friend to wake up. The medical team from Blackout had treated her wounds as best as they could and it seems like she will be fine, though it is a miracle how the shell performed such a clean cut on her leg and didn't rip off her knee too.

"Hello, Sister," Miho greets her sister with a bright smile to gain her attention as she enters the helicopter with Odysseus.

"Ah, hello Miho," Maho says back with a smile as she spots her sister entering, but when she sees who is next to her, that smile evaporates quicker than a drop of water in a desert.

Seeing Odysseus too, Erika stands up from where she is sitting and takes a step forward.

"What do you want? You are not welcome here," she says harshly.

Unfazed by the harshness of Erika's voice, Odysseus smirks at her.

"If I'm not wrong, this helicopter belongs to the company I work for, so by logical deduction I can come and go in it as I please. Or did you left your brain in one of the trenches out there?" Odysseus answers back just as harshly.

"Erika," Maho calls out sternly at her vice-commander, before the situation can devolve any further. Erika just glares at Odysseus for a second, before sitting back at the bed where Maho is.

"Do you have any business with us?" Maho asks Odysseus with her usual stoic expression.

"I came here to apologize for shooting Miho, throwing you on the ground and pointing a revolver in your face, and for saying mean things about all of you," Odysseus says with a serious expression. "Though, I do hope you understand all of this was mere acts."

"While I can forgive that you pointed a gun at me and for the things you said about me and my girls, for they were mere acts, as you said," Maho stands up to face Odysseus, though she has to look a tiny bit upwards, since she is still shorter than her, "but shooting Miho, my sister, is unforgivable. You basically gambled her life on a mere rumor you had heard and that's something I cannot tolerate."

"Well, shit, sorry for trying to save everyone's lives from a fate worse than death," Odysseus raises both of her hands at the level of her chest like she is surrendering. "It's not my fault there wasn't any better way to buy time. Or are you as blind as a bat and can't see even that?"

"Watch your tongue! Do you even know to who you are talking!?" Erika says hotly, standing up in reflex at hearing Odysseus insulting her commander.

"Maho Nishizumi, heir to the obsolete Nishizumi style that got demolished live on TV during the 63rd National Senshadou Tournament," Odysseus answers rather calmly. Although Maho seems to be barely fazed by her harsh words, Erika seems like she is about to explode. Miho just looks worriedly at them, since more and more girls turn to look curiously at them, wondering what all this commotion is.

"But that's a discussion that matters little now, doesn't it?" Odysseus sighs. "Anyway, I did what I came here for. Whether you accept my apology or not, I couldn't care less."

And with this she turns around to leave the helicopter, only to find Nonna, Katyusha, who for some reason isn't sitting on Nonna's shoulders, and a worried Klara looking at her.

"So...what do you want, shrimp?" Odysseus asks Katyusha.

"My name's not shrimp, it's Katyusha!" Katyusha grumbles angrily, but quickly composes herself, coughing slightly to clear her throat. "Ahem. Anyway, Odysseus, tell us about your past and why you called yourself earlier by the name 'White'," Katyusha says bluntly, almost in a demanding tone.

Odysseus expression darkens considerably, so much so that Nonna and Klara take a step forward subconsciously, in case she tries to do anything at Katyusha, who seems oblivious at this change. Even Miho notices this and takes a step closer at her.

"And why would you like to know?" she asks Katyusha slowly.

"We have reasons to believe that the name 'White' is a codename of yours. Also, you seem to have received more than just basic training in infantry combat," Nonna says calmly, her expression as cold as the Siberian wilderness.

"So it is simple curiosity," Odysseus says slowly, scanning each one of the Pravda girls carefully.

Nonna and the others simply nod.

"Then I don't mind!" she says rather cheerfully and points at Maho and Erika. "Go take a seat with them. Oh, could one of you go and get Darjeeling and the others? I'm sure they'd be interested in what I have to say."

And so Klara goes back to the first helicopter to get Darjeeling and the others. Odysseus then turns to Miho.

"And Miho, why don't you get your team here, too? The more, the merrier!"

"Uhm...sure," Miho says reluctantly and she, too, goes to get her team. After a few minutes, everyone has gathered at the helicopter, with Maho, Erika, Nonna, Katyusha, who is sitting on Nonna's shoulders, Klara and Hana sitting on one collapsible bed while Miho, Saori, Mako, Assam and Darjeeling on the opposite collapsible bed, and both Yukari and Kay are standing next to it. Odysseus is standing a little further away from the beds so that everyone can see her.

"So, everyone's here?" she asks.

"Won't Lady Annabelle and the rest of your crew join us?" Assam asks.

"No, they already know about my past, so there's no reason to listen at it again," she says and clasps her hands together.

"Now then, let's start with some basic info. First of all, my real name ain't Odysseus, is Elpida Papaioannou, with Elpida being my name and Papaioannou being my surname, since you Japanese tend to say them the other way around. For anyone that doesn't know, I am eighteen years old and my native country is Greece. I transfered in St. Gloriana two years ago. Before I proceed, do you have any questions?" she asks and looks at the girls, but the girls shake their heads.

"Okay, then let us continue. Second of all, and am sure you know, Darjeeling," she points a finger at the ever elegant commander who is currently seeping some tea, "but I basically hacked my way into St. Gloriana's servers to print the transfer papers. Or rather, I had a friend of mine do it."

To say that everyone has surprised expressions would be an understament, minus Maho, Nonna and of course, Darjeeling.

"What!? This is impossible!" Assam almost shouts, standing up immediately. "The carrier's security is state of the art! No one should be able to bypass it, however good they may be!"

"Really? Cause my friend said he could hack his way inside easily even if he was blindfolded and was typing at the keyboard with only one arm. He said that the firewall had so many security loopholes to exploit, it was a miracle no one had noticed." She then turns to look at Darjeeling. "But of course you knew about this, didn't you?"

"I will admit I had knowledge that a security breach had happened in our servers, but since all the logs had been erased, we couldn't really see what had changed. But I figured it out when you came aboard the carrier."

"Aren't you a smart one? As expected of the overall commander of St. Gloriana."

"So you knew, Darjeeling?" Assam asks a bit shocked, though she doesn't show it.

"I'm afraid I did, but she seemed to be an intriguing individual, so I kept it a secret from most people," Darjeeling answers back.

"And so, with these disclaimers out of the way, let's start our little story time!" Odysseus says with a smile that lasts only for a second, before giving way to a more serious expression.

"So, I was born in Athens, the capital of my country. Though, after a few days, I was dumped at an orphanage with only a small piece of paper that had my name and a small blanket that I was wrapped with. What great parents, wouldn't you agree?" The sarcasm in her voice is so prominent, that one could almost see it and touch it.

"But, what if they left you to the orphanage because they didn't have the money to support you and didn't want for you to have to go through poverty?" Miho blurts out.

"Two things wrong with this," Odysseus says and lifts two fingers. "First, the orphanage I was in was barely able to make ends meet, so even if their intentions were good, they ultimately failed. Second, I'd like to think that they just dumped me there cause their money weren't enough to take care of me and buy their drugs at the same time; it will certainly make it easier for me to put a bullet through their heads once I find them."

The bluntness and seriousness of her statement hits some of the girls like a bag of bricks straight in their face.

"But I digress. The thing is, when I was a little kid, I was just the most grumpy kid in the whole orphanage. Not making friends, always picking fights with the other kids and being pessimistic about everything. But misery loves company and I managed to make two friends that were as bad as me, if not more. One of them is the guy that hacked St. Gloriana. And that trend continued into elementary school too! Picking fights with the kids, disrespecting the teachers, all the good stuff! I remember one time where a girl tried to bully me for having no friends. I just dragged her from her hair around the school yard until a teacher came and physically separated us. I think I managed to rip a tuff of hair from her head at the end," she murmurs the last part mostly to herself. "Anyway, after a while the kids started avoiding me, so things got somewhat calmer for the rest of my elementary school years.

"And then middle school came. Since our school was one of the few ones that supported after-school activities, the caretakers back into the orphanage kept nudging me to join one of these activities. And so, while looking at the activities the school had to offer, like soccer or basketball, I stumbled upon Tankery and it was love at first sight. To be able to command your own tank, feel the thrill of the battle, it was right up my alley."

"Sorry for interrupting, but is Tankery any different than Senshadou?" Saori asks out of curiosity. "Aren't both about driving tanks?"

"Yep, but there are a couple of differences. Firstly, the sport is open to both boys and girls. Secondly, it isn't about making you develop your self-esteem, become an efficient citizen and develop the characteristics necessary for motherhood, however that is possible when you are driving a metal box that dispenses death every time its cannon is fired. Tankery is all about the thrill of the battle and the adrenaline that rushes through your veins during one. They also allow for more tanks per team to participate, some rules are different and you can even modify the vehicles to a certain extent. In other words, it is a lot more competitive and brutal than yours...and that's the reason why I liked it so much. So I grabbed and filled one of the forms that are needed to join and gave it to one of the caretakers back in the orphanage, since a legal guardian's signature was needed. At first the caretakers were reluctant to sign the form, but when I told them it would really help with my nerves and make me a lot calmer, the scale was instantly tipped in my favor and the next day I was part of the school team!

"But since most kids in the team were from my elementary school, no one wanted me to be part of their crew, and to be honest, I didn't want to be one either. And since rumors spread like fire in gasoline, even kids who didn't know me started avoiding me. Luckily, there were two girls that finally approached me, because like me, they couldn't find people to form a crew. The first girl was named Chara. A really shy and meek girl, always quiet and with really bad social skills, but my God, she had the eyesight of an eagle. The second girl was named Calliope. The delinquent of the school, always picking fights with other kids and promptly beating them to a pulp, and Chara's only and best friend. Plus, they were orphans, just like me. Needless to say, we became best friends instantly."

For the first time since she began narrating the story of her life, Odysseus develops a bright, nostalgic smile.

"Since we were a crew of three, we were given a Panzer II ausf L "Luchs" light tank to play with, which had a 2cm KwK 38 autocannon with a ten-shell clip. Anyway, because we were only three people, as I said, except for acting as a commander/gunner, I was also acting as the radioman. Though when the shit hit the fun, I'd change positions with Chara, since her skills as a gunner were far superior than mine. And so we were assigned as our team's scout unit, though we were everything but a scout. I remember we would always use APCR rounds and just go face the enemy head-on! In one particular match against another school we charged straight into a formation of five enemy tanks. Managed to knock out four of them, including their flag tank, before getting knocked out ourselves."

* * *

 _(FLASHBACK)_

"I-I...I don't think we should do it, Elpida," Chara says to Odysseus, her shy voice barely audible through the humming of the Luch's engine. The tank is hiding behind two big and thick bushes that do a rather good job at concealing it as it stalks its enemies. The red flag that shows its flag-tank status gently sways at the gentle breeze that occupies the battlefield.

"Don't be like that, Chara. This is our only chance to win the match, since the idiots we call teammates managed to knock out only three enemy tanks!" Calliope says hotly, clearly expressing her "displeasure" towards the other tank crews of her team. "Like, c'mon, are they even trying!? We managed to knock out two enemy tanks from three hundred meters away!"

"Now-now, no need to be so harsh Calliope. The team just isn't as good as we are, nothing we can do about it. Anyway, Chara, we need to take the initiative here, we can't just run and hide. Either we achieve victory or fall trying. They are moving in a V-shaped formation with the flag tank at the center. Distance, four hundred meters, though it seems that one tank is missing," Odysseus says, then turns to Chara. "Switch places with me and try to see what kind of tank it is. I can tell it is a Panzer III, but I can't tell which variant."

"Why do you need to know?" Calliope asks, as she is looking at Odysseus and Chara changing seats.

"Because from the J variants and up, the tank got solid 50mm plates in its front and rear, which means our APCR rounds will do nothing at all."

"Uhm...I think they have bolted armor plates on their front," Chara murmurs quietly, looking through the gunner's sight at the approaching enemy. They must be the H variant, I think."

Odysseus just laughs at this.

"Well, we are royally screwed now! We can't penetrate them from the front or the rear, so we will have to hit them from the sides."

"So what should we do now?" Calliope asks, grabbing the steering levers.

"We are going full YOLO mode and eliminate as many of them as we can! Chara, this is our last belt of APCR rounds, so make the shells count! Calliope, try to circle around them with as much speed as you can and stay at their sides; it is the only place from which we can penetrate them."

"Dont pressure me, Elpida!" Chara cries out, as Calliope revs up the engine in anticipation. Even Odysseus can feel the adrenaline creeping slowly into her blood circulation and when the enemy is at a distance of two hundred and fifty meters away, she grins devilishly.

"Go!" she yells and the Luchs bursts through the bushes like an alien chestburster and starts heading directly onto the enemy. Chara takes a clutch shot and the shell manages to immobilize the tank that is at the front of the formation.

"One tank immobilized!" Chara yells and reacquires a target, though she refrains from firing until she can see the side armor of the tanks.

"Nine shells left!" Odysseus yells too, keeping track of the remaining ammunition so that Chara can fully concentrate on aiming.

Calliope suddenly turns the tank left and start circling the enemy. Mere moments later, shells land at where the Luchs was, throwing dirt and patches of grass in the air. As the Luchs circles and evades more incoming shells, Chara aims at the side of the immobilized Panzer and fires. With the shell traveling a distance of about two hundred meters, it has more than enough kinetic power to penetrate the 30mm of side armor the Panzer III has for protection.

"One down!" Chara says with excitement, a huge smile plastered on her face.

"Eight shells remaining!" Odysseus announces, as MG bullets start pinging the side of their tank.

"I can't acquire the sides of the other tanks!"

"Try to immobilize them like you did with the first one! Calliope, go for drive-by!" Odysseus orders.

"Are you crazy!? They will rip us to shreds!" Calliope immediately protests, but makes a sharp right turn and starts charging the enemy tanks, zigzagging to throw off their aim.

"Took you long enough to figure it out! Seven left!" she yells as she hears Chara yelling "Bounced". Firing another shot, Chara manages to immobilize one of the three remaining tanks that tries to cover the flag tank. As the distance between them reaches the fifty-meter mark, Calliope turns sharply left and then right and brings her tank parallel to the immobilized one. As the enemy shoots and one of the AP shells manages to ricochet at the side of the Luchs turret, thanks to the angle with which it hits it, Chara turns the turret ninety degrees to the right, nails the immobilized tank at the side, as indicated by the popping of a white flag from the top of the turret, fires another that hits the front driving wheel of the flag tank and dents it horribly, causing the right track to come off, and hits the other tank that tries to protect the flag and knocks it out.

"Flag tank remaining!" Chara announces, sweat dripping from her forehead, the pressure of their current situation pushing both body and mind at their limits.

"Three shells remaining! Calliope, drift it!"

Calliope performs an one-eighty turn to face the side of the enemy flag tank, Chara getting ready to fire the remaining shells and claim victory for them.

 ** _Boom_**

"Fuck!" Odysseus yells as she hears a cannon discharging somewhere in the distance from their left, followed by the violent shaking of the tank.

"Enemy tank on our left and we can't move, probably destroyed tracks!" Calliope yells as quickly as humanly possible, with more bullet-pinging rattling the left side of the tank.

"Screw the enemy on the left! Chara, dump all remaining shells at the flag tank!" Odysseus roars while Chara is already rotating the turret to the left. With adrenaline racing through her whole body and giving her the illusion of slow motion, the mere seconds it takes for the gun to bear on its target become like an eternity and the machine-gun like sound of her foot's heel hitting repeatedly the floor of the tank does little to speed things up.

It is a race against time. Will the Luchs manage to fire first, or will the enemies beat it to the punch?  
The moment the gunner's sight rests upon the vulnerable side of the enemy flag tank, the autocannon roars three times as it releases the last of its lethal APCR projectiles. The first shell grazes the side of the Panzer III's turret, harmlessly bouncing to the right. The second shell lands square in the gun mantle, bouncing pitifully to the ground, but the third shell hits the side...just as two, big AP shells connect with the Luchs's frontal and side hull armor.

As everything comes to a halt and the siren that announces the match's end is heard, Odysseus and her crew exit their vehicle, gazing at the white flags that have popped in both flag tanks.  
While Chara sits at the edge of the Luch's turret, lightly moving her legs back and forth, Odysseus stretches her arms up in the air and Calliope just plops down on the ground.

"That was fun! We should do it again!" Chara says with joy, smiling at her friends.

"I totally agree!" Odysseus nods emphatically.

"But next time we won't lose," Calliope grins and lifts a closed fist at Odysseus, who proceeds to fistbump it.

"You can bet on it!"

 _(END OF FLASHBACK)_

* * *

"Since both flag tanks got knocked out at the same time, the judges decided that the team with the most surviving members would be the victor, so we were declared the losers. Though this particular battle remained as one of the best highlights of the tournament, so we weren't that saddened for our loss. These times...were the best moments in my life," she says with a nostalgic tone, her smile now showing sadness.

"Sorry for the tangent, I just really like talking about that particular battle. Anyway, for about a year, everything was fine. I'd do Tankery in school, spend time with Chara and Calliope, try to be nicer to other kids and generally do things that a girl of my age normally does. And then, at the age of fourteen, the universe said "screw you" and decided that Hell would be a better place for me."  
Odysseus expression darkens considerably, silent anger emanating from her eyes.

"Political tensions between all Balkan countries were starting to get out of control and the military brass used this as an excuse to greenlight a confidential military program not even the government was aware of. On the surface, the program was the acquisition of several kids ranging in ages from as young as twelve years old all the way up to eighteen. Forty kids were brought in, and as the program said, they were all trained to be assassins. The training lasted for about seven months and turned most of the kids into killing machines, including me. They taught them how to shoot guns, infiltration, deception, anything an assassin can use in order to approach their targets and slay them."

"Isn't that illegal? Wouldn't the UN or the government intervene if they found about this program?" Saori gasps in shock, as several of the other girls have the same reaction or seem surprised to a degree.

"The government did hear rumors about a really questionable military project going on, but since everyone was holed up in an underground base in an unknown location, there were no evidence to its existence, so the military just had to say "what project?" and be rid of any suspicion on them."

"This is horrible," Saori says in a low voice and Odysseus smirks at that.

"It gets even better! After the training was complete, the real purpose of the program was revealed to us. And it was nothing short of a massacre."

Odysseus pauses for a second, taking a deep breath through her nose.

"The real purpose of the project was to create supersoldiers. In other words, a genetics experiment. All forty kids were injected with a strange liquid the scientists called Serum. I think mine was white; my memories from that time are really fuzzy, and if I'm honest, I'd prefer for them to stay that way. So, from the forty kids, only ten survived, myself included. And us ten that survived, the only things that we got were faster reflexes and different eye color," she says and points momentarily at her eyes.

"Mine was blue at first, not light purple. The good news is that I made even more friends! Four of them actually. Their names were Black, Red, Orange and Green. Obviously, these weren't their real names, but rather nicknames based on the color the liquid they got injected had. And now you know half the reason why I called myself White.

"So, about one year after we got dragged in this hell hole, a coup d'etat occurred in my country, just as the Third Balkan War began. The new government discovered the program, which was named the Reaper program by the way, and immediately thought of testing the fruits of it. Too bad we weren't what the program intended for us to be. In the end, we were branded as failures. Seven managed to escape the facility, leaving behind a trail of blood and bodies. Two were used as guinea pigs to another experiment, far worse than the first. And I got transfered at a military unit that contained people who the government considered a threat to their power."

"But wouldn't that be inefficient? If all the people there didn't like the government, why would they fight for them? They could just refuse to fight," Kay points out.

"And get branded as traitors, punishable by immediate execution. Either they fight and die in battle or they refuse to do so and die by the hands of their own countrymen. Whichever way you see it, the government always win. Also, keep in mind that most of them had families, and as bad as the government might have been, at least they paid them.

"Shortly after transferring into the unit, my country entered the war. Serbia had been fighting Albania for a good month, since Albania had stationed troops in Kosovo and had ignored Serbia's demands of withdrawing them. Since the Serbians had a hard time repelling the Albanians for some reason, they asked us for help and the government gladly accepted, under the condition that Serbia declares war on FYROM. You might better know them as the Macedonia wannabes, bunch of fucking culture stealers. By the way, the Bulgarians joined in too, since they wanted a piece of the pie, and NATO was nowhere to be found, since papa Russia warned the US not to intervene. Anyway, the army amassed at the borders and my unit was at the Albanian ones.

"My first battle was baptism by fire. Sure, I had been trained to kill, but being a fifteen-year-old teenager, reality hit me so hard it almost shattered my sanity completely. When they say war is Hell, there is a reason they say it. I have seen and done things to survive that are better to be left unspoken. I would also constantly have nightmares and one or two times I snapped and proceeded to scream my lungs out till my throat would start to hurt really badly. Probably would have gone insane if it wasn't for a psychologist in our unit. That guy really helped me from losing my mind. Also, there was a medic in our unit that took care of me. Her name was Anna and she was the closest thing I ever had that I could call a family. I swear, one or two times my tongue slipped and I called her Mom, though she didn't seem to mind. She knew I was an orphan, so I guess she felt sympathy towards me." Odysseus says the last part with so much bitterness and regret, that one could probably taste it on the air. Even her eyes glisten for a moment, threatening to start tearing up. "Needless to say, I was really attached to her.

"But as always, the universe decided that I had to suffer even more and acted accordingly. The Albanians had bought from the Russians a couple T-90s and even acquired from the black market an A-15 Lightning II. My unit was in the frontline and our intelligence team had intercepted radio transmissions that indicated some of the T-90s were at a nearby plateau, waiting to ambush us. This was the perfect opportunity for the government to get rid of us once and for all, so they withheld these information from us. My unit also had a couple Leopards 2A6Hel, which were promptly "reassigned" to other units and gave us our own local-made tanks named Cerberus. It was a rather good tank, with a 130mm cannon, armor that could reach a thickness of about 200mm and it was fast and maneuverable. Problem is, the armor is RHA, which means that any modern tank can kill it instantly. See how things line up?"

She then turns and looks at the Pravda girls.

"Did you only heard calling myself White?"

"No. We...heard you speaking about a snowy plain of eternal silence," Klara says reluctantly.

"Cool. Keep that phrase in mind, cause it will make a sense after you hear what I have to say. It was at the day of my birthday when everything went down."

* * *

 **Three years ago**

 **One hundred and forty kilometers inside Albanian land, Forward Headquarters**

 **Second Mechanized Division, Fourth Brigade**

"Why do I always have to run their errands? Can't these lazy guys do anything on their own?"

At the Forward HQ of the Second Division, which was a camp with some prefabricated buildings, a lone girl that wears a stuffy, white military uniform is slowly walking in the snow that covers the ground, leaving behind footprints of the soles of her military boots. Her silk blonde hair desperately try to escape the confines of her hood that covers her head to protect it from the chilling winds that sweep the area. Reaching one of the large buildings, she stops in front of its entrance, her light purple eyes gazing at the steel door.

"At least I won't have to freeze my ass running around and scouting the surrounding areas like yesterday," she sighs, her exhaling breath clearly noticeable due to the temperature difference between it and the air.

"If I wanted to be a scout I'd just apply to become one," she grumbles under her breath as she enters the building. Getting inside, she can immediately feel the warmth washing in her face, whose pale skin and rosy cheeks welcome it eagerly.

"Ahhh, the advantages of modern technology," she says pleasantly as she closes her eyes and lowers her hood, savoring the sweet feeling of warmth. Her mind starts wandering off to various things as she lets her head get warmer.

"Are you going to stand there for a long time, Elpida?"

"Huh?"

Hearing a voice calling out to her, Elpida opens her eyes and looks around the small lobby-like area she is in. She immediately spots a woman with short brown hair and brown eyes in a military uniform similar to hers, a warm smile on her face.

"Anna!" Elpida shouts and immediately jumps at the woman, giving her a mighty hug. "I missed you so much!"

"Well, being a medic can be quite time consuming, especially after a battle," the woman named Anna says, softly patting Elpida's head. "How have you been?"

"Fine. Though things could have been better," she murmurs quietly. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, go ahead."

Can you give me some chocolate?" Elpida says suddenly, looking up at the woman expectantly.

"Well...about that...you see..." Anna says with an awkward smile.

"You don't have any?" Elpida says in a saddened tone, making her best to look at the medic with puppy eyes in order to secure some sweet loot from her.

"Don't look at me like this!" Anna says as she looks away from the young girl, trying to resist her cuteness, but failing.

"Fine, fine, I'll give you some of mine, just follow me back to the dormitory," she finally relents with a smile.

"Yay!" she cheers and joyfully follows Anna. Walking through a hallway, both girls end up in front of a door that has a sign on the wall that reads: "Sleeping Quarters, Unit 13 and Unit 14".

Opening the door, Elpida finds herself inside a rather large room, which has two rows of bunk beds in it, one on each side. Most of the beds are empty right now, but there are some people here and there, either lying or sitting on them, talking to each other or reading books and magazines.

"I see our guest of honor has arrived," one of the men says from his bed and the others turn to look at Elpida and Anna, who closes the door behind her after entering.

"Hey, Elpida, there is a box with your name at this totally inconspicuous table in the middle of the room," another man says in a strained voice, trying his best to stifle the urge to start laughing for some reason.

Giving him a puzzled expression, Elpida misses the intense glare Anna gives the man, causing him to immediately retreat further in the room while laughing slightly. Shrugging, Elpida goes near the small table in the middle of the room and curiously scans the box. It is of medium size and its exterior is chocolate brown, with the name "La Soleil" printed on the right bottom side of it. A sticky note sits in the middle of the box's top and it reads,

"Prepare to be amazed," Elpida murmurs slowly, picking up the sticky note and gazing at the box.

"Unless it is a mountain of chocolate, I doubt it will amaze me," she says and crushes the small sticky note with her right hand. "So, who got this thing? And where are the guys from the fourteenth?"

"They have been reassigned elsewhere, so they won't be with us anymore. And we don't know who got this, we just found it sitting there when we came," a third man, who is sitting to a bed next to Elpida, says with an amused smile.

"Like what, is it a cursed box some ghost put here for no reason? Should I grab my camera and go around purifying spirits?" she responds back and some of the men inside the room burst in laughter at her reference.

"Open the box and find out," the man chuckles and Elpida does just that.

Opening the box, she finds her hands freezing in place, her eyes widening in shock at its contents. Inside the box sits a small chocolate cake, with strawberries decorating the edges. The phrase" Happy birthday, Elpida!" is written on the top of the cake with whipped cream and two candles have been placed on the center of the cake, one candle being shaped like the number 1 and the second like the number 5.

"Surprise!" everyone shouts the moment Elpida opens the box and one of the guys even whistles loudly.

"This...This is...for me?" she asks Anna slowly as she turns to face her, still shocked at what has happened.

"Yep! We all put some money together and bought you a birthday cake! Happy birthday Elpida!" Anna says in a cheerful voice and can't help but grin at the young girl who looks up at her in awe. "Do you like it?"

"I...I d-don't...its...I..." Elpida tries to talk, but she finds her throat throbbing slightly and her words getting stuck on it, so she bounds at Anna and hugs her, trying to hide her face at her chest as tears start running from her eyes.

"I say that this is a mission success," one of the men says as he lights the candles on the cake, looking at the silently crying Elpida who is sniffling every few seconds and Anna who is hugging Elpida back and pats the back of her head affectionately.

"Oh, little Elpida looks so cute when she is crying," another man says.

Are you a lolicon, Stavro?" this time a woman asks, looking at him in disgust and moving slightly away from him.

"What are you talking about, you weeb!?" the man says back in disbelief. "I have a wife and a daughter you know, no chance in hell I'd go after damn middle schoolers! Why don't you and your _waifu_ go burn in a fire, you perverted woman!?"

"How dare you insult my beloved 2-D anime character! Apologize immediately you disgusting plebeian!"

"Anime is real, Earth is flat and all governments in the world are controlled by the lizard men!" a man next to the one called Stavros, shouts, putting a cap on his head made out of aluminum foil and starts waving his hands in the air. "The moon landings never happened, JFK was assassinated by the CIA and Bigfoot is real!"

"In case you forgot, guys, this is supposed to be a surprise party for Elpida turning fifteen, not a contest on who is the dumbest person in the unit," Anna sighs at the men, before turning her attention to Elpida. By now the girl has calmed down and a smile is etched on her face.

"I really like it. Thanks a lot, Mom," she whispers loudly enough for only Anna to hear her.

"You are such a cutie, you know that?" Anna says and playfully rubs her hair, messing them a little. "Come on, enough hugging me. You have a wish to make and a cake to eat."

Nodding in response, Elpida wipes her eyes clean from any stray tears that might still be lingering with her left hand, turns around, takes a deep breath and blows out the lit candles.

Everyone starts clapping and Elpida just looks around with an embarrassed smile, her cheeks blushing slightly.

"By the way, kid," the man that had told her to open the box when she first entered the room speaks up. "I hope you didn't wish for your breast to grow."

"W-W-W-What!? Of course not!" Elpida yells out in embarrassment and quickly hides behind Anna.

"Good, cause Anna has been doing this for 20 years now and her chest is still as flat as a plank."

"Any last words, Niko?" Anna seethes through clenched teeth and a really scary smile, her right fist visibly clenched.

"Totally worth it," Nikos says with the most straight face a man can make and raises his right hand to five a peace sign.

But as Anna is about to punch him in the face with the strength of a thousand men, the door to the sleeping quarters open and everyone turns to look at the new arrival.

In the door stands a man that is probably at his late 40s to early 50s and has gray hair with gray eyes. Like everyone else, he is wearing a military uniform, but the insignia on it suggests that his rank is at least major, maybe even higher.

"Sorry to crash the party, but Command has issued new orders. Get ready and report at the front gate in twenty minutes," he says in a rather bored voice, like he doesn't care if he is interrupting anything or not. "And Elpida, get ready and report at the motor pool in ten; You have been reassigned as a tank commander and will be in charge of a Cerberus tank."

"Wait, why!?" Anna practically yells at the major, who continues to look at her with the same, bored expression. "Isn't it enough that you dragged a kid into a war? Why do you have to burden her with even more responsibilities!?"

"Hey, I'm just the messenger. If you have any complaints, go report them at Command," he answers back in a neutral tone. "They are the ones that saw she had done Tankery in the past and decided to put her in charge of a tank. Personally, I think it's a waste of military assets, but that's besides the point. You have your orders, now get on with them."

And with this, the major leaves the room, murmuring about how he isn't being paid enough to listen to everyone's problems and complaints like a damn psychologist.

"That leech, when I get my hands on him..." Anna fumes silently, wanting to make that man disappear for good from this world, by drowning him on a lake or river, or any other body of water that she can safely dispose a corpse.

"Please calm down, Anna. As Major said, I have commanded a tank before, so this isn't such a big deal," Elpida says rather cheerfully, probably to make Anna less angry.

"But it is dangerous, Elpida! What if something goes horribly wrong!? And a tank is such a big target!"

"You are worrying too much, you know it? The tank might be a big target, but it also has armor, so things balance out. Anyway, let's get ready."

* * *

"I really don't like that we have to shield the infantry," Elpida murmurs worriedly, scanning her surroundings through her tank's cupola. A tank flanks her own tank at each side, the gaps between them being about five meters wide. Behind each tank there are several soldiers taking cover, slowly following them through the thick snow. All around them there is nothing but snow, with the occasional pockets of trees that inhabit this mostly flat place. The sky is covered with gray clouds and small snowflakes drop down on the ground, creating a serene landscape.

"And what's going on with the weather. It's the middle of October and it has snowed like it's the middle of Winter!"

"Don't forget, commander, we are at a rather high altitude and experts have been saying that this year's winter is going to be one of the worst we have seen," the gunner says at Elpida.

"This is so frustrating! The snow is at least half a meter high, the infantry is barely able to keep up with us and we have only covered three kilometers so far!" Elpida complains with a grumpy face. "And why the helmet they gave me is so large!?" she grumbles as she tries to readjust her helmet and its microphone.

"We have to go with the infantry's pace, whether we like it or not," the loader comments this time from his position. "So, why is a little girl like you in the military? Isn't it illegal for minors to be doing things like fighting in a war?"

"Does Unit 13 ring any bells?"

"Oh...my condolences. But then again, what could you have done to piss off the government so much that they'd try to silence you this way? And what about your family?"

"I'm an orphan, so no one will notice I'm missing."

The loader elects to say nothing more, seeing that he maybe entering a potential minefield. As the tanks slowly advance to the designated point, a radio transmission comes through.

 _"To all advancing units trying to link with elements of the fourth Mechanized Brigade, we have intel of an enemy detachment making a move towards the forward HQ. Alpha Squad, you are hereby ordered to stop them at any cost. They should be on your position in five minutes tops."_

"Wait, Major, how the hell did they break through the front lines so easily?" Elpida asks urgently on the radio, but she gets no response back. "What the hell, he won't even respond back to me."

Meanwhile the infantry is starting to fan out behind the tanks, barely visible in their white uniforms that blend with the surrounding environment.

But as the infantry starts to spread out, one of the soldiers that is behind the tank on the left, notices something buried on the snow in front of him.

"Hey, there is something weird over here," he calls to the soldier next to him, but as the soldier next to him turns to see what he is talking about, a white canister with several small holes around it, about half a meter tall, springs into the air about half a meter, spinning clockwise. In fact, in the area where the tanks and infantry are, several of the same canisters are already in the air and are spinning.

"What the-" Elpida says as she spots the weird canisters through the cupola's vision ports, but then screams in shock and surprise as the canisters start spraying liquid napalm everywhere, setting the infantry on fire.

And as if this wasn't enough, a really loud clang is heard at the right of the tank, followed by the violent shaking of the vehicle.

"Aaaahhhhhh!" she screams in terror as she ducks down and covers her head with her arms.

"Hey, kid, this is not the time to be scared!" the loader yells at Elpida, seeing that she is curling up into her seat, trembling like a leaf in the wind.

"Leave her be for now! We have bigger problems to deal with!" the gunner yells after he fires a shot at what he thinks looks like the turret of a tank.

 _"To all Alpha units, this is Alpha leader! Allied infantry has been eliminated! Enemy spotted at twelve o'clock, seven hundred meters! Three T-90s, they are taking cover behind the mounds of snow-"_

The sound of steel grinding and shattering fills the air as the tank on Elpida's left gets penetrated through the lower armor plate at the front of the hull, followed by another penetration at the same plate and a shell that hits the front of the turret and gets lodged in it, but doesn't penetrate through it.

"One down!" the loader yells as she pushes yet another 130mm APFSDS shell in the breech of the tank's cannon.

"Shit! We need to get-" the gunner starts saying, but gets interrupted by Elpida, who seems to have been shocked back to action by the destruction of the lead tank.

"Driver, full speed backwards! Zigzag to throw the enemy's aim off!" she orders loudly through the intercom and the driver immediately complies, putting the tank in reverse and driving backwards at a zigzag pattern, which seems to do the trick of saving their skin, as the enemy's shells either miss or hit the front of the hull and turret armor at weird angles and bounce away.

"Alpha-2 retreat now, don't just stand there in the open like a damn pillbox!" she yells at the other Cerberus tank through the radio, albeit a little late as a heat round slams straight at the front of the turret and penetrates, the jet of liquid metal hitting the ammo rack of the tank and sending its turret for a short flight through the air, before hitting the snowy ground next to its body.

"He is a goner!" the gunner says and fires the cannon once more, this time the shell hitting one of the T-90s at its cannon and denting the barrel horribly. "Don't know whether this hit is a blessing or a curse." Having driven far enough so that the enemy cannot reliably hit their tank, the T-90s are forced to leave their cover to pursuit the lone survivor before it gets away and report their position or call reinforcements.

But as the T-90s start closing the distance, the Cerberus tank fires an HE shell and hits the leading tank in its left track, destroying part of it and causing the tank to drift left and stop moving, showing its weak side armor at Elpida's tank. The T-90 on its left tries to retaliate, but when it fires, the shell gets stuck at the dent the barrel has, and the gasses that have been created from the detonation of the shell's gunpowder in the shell casing violently enter the crew compartment through the breech and cook the three crew members alive in an instant, moments before the barrel gives in and violently explodes, severing at the place where the shell got stuck.

"One down, two more to go!" Elpida cheers as the gunner reacquires another target, this time the immobilized T-90 and fires yet another shot, landing square at the side of the hull armor and penetrating.

"Second one is down," the gunner announces, but when he tries to look around for the third T-90, he only finds a thick cloud of smoke in its place. "Third one has escaped," he announces, but keeps his guard up as he scans the surroundings in front of him.

"Probably retreated," Elpida says as she looks through the cupola, trying to avoid the black smoke that rises in the distance from the charred bodies of her comrades. Seeing nothing, she tries to contact the HQ for further orders.

"HQ, this is Alpha-3, how copy?"

 _"Alpha-3, this is HQ, we copy you loud and clear. What's the situation?"_

"Major, we got ambushed by the enemy. They had rigged the area with a weird canister-like weapon that threw napalm everywhere. The infantry along with Alpha leader and Alpha-2 are gone. We also encountered three enemy T-90s that were waiting for the trap to be triggered. Two of them got destroyed and one of them escaped; should we try and pursuit the remaining enemy or return back to HQ?"

 _"Negative on returning, the enemy might follow you and report the HQ's position. Try to find the last survivor and eliminate them."_

"We copy HQ. Alpha-3 out."

Terminating the transmission, Elpida sighs heavily, rubbing her eyes with her right hand's thumb and index finger.

"This day can't possibly get worse," she mutters loudly, really not looking forwards at what's in store for her in the near future.

"You just jinxed it," the loader says, while the gunner keeps scanning his immediate surroundings and the driver remains silent as always.

"What do you mean I jinxed it?" Elpida asks and several explosions occur to the ground next to the tank, throwing snow and dirt everywhere.

"What the heck was that!?" the loader yells as Elpida quickly opens the cupola's hatch and emerges through it, looking all around her for the source of the explosion.

That's it until she hears the telltale sound of a jet engine and looks up in the sky to find an airplane diving towards them to perform a strafing run with its weapons.

"A-15 Lightning II incoming! Driver get us the hell out of here!" she screams in fright in the intercom, as the enemy aircraft starts launching its unguided rockets from its rocket pods.

The tank immediately shoots forward and barely avoids the barrage of rockets that pummel the position where the tank was mere moments ago.

"HQ, this is Alpha-3, we are under attack from a hostile A-15 Lightning II! Requesting immediate air support!" Elpida says on the radio as she keeps track of the aircraft, before she finally loses sight of it as it rises beyond the cloud layer.

 _"Negative Alpha-3, there are no available air assets at the moment."_

"We are going to die if we don't get any help!" she yells at the major, the pressure of a jet aircraft lurking somewhere above their heads ready to destroy them being a little more than what she can handle at the moment.

 _"This is war, soldiers die. And if you think about retreating back here, you will be labeled as a traitor and shot on sight,"_ the Major says with a bored voice, before terminating the transmission.

"You son of a bitch!" she yells as she dives inside the tank momentarily. "We are on our own, guys, and we can't go back to base, lest we want to be shot on sight!"

"Things got a lot more interesting all of a sudden, didn't they?" the gunner says, before the sound of a jet engine starts filling up the air again. Emerging from the cupola once more, Elpida looks in horror as the A-15 descends rapidly from the sky, shooting 30mm API rounds from its GAU-8/A Avenger gatlin gun.

"Turn right, turn right!" Elpida screams as she gazes at the small geysers of snow that rapidly approach her and her tank. Doing as told, the driver turns the tank right suddenly in an effort to throw off the pilot's aim, but unfortunately the pilot sees that and turns left in an effort to hit the tank.

Only two rounds manage to hit the tank, since the pilot's sharp turn threw off his aim, but one round manages to destroy the left track and the other penetrates through the roof of the hull armor, hitting the driver square in the head and promptly splattering it all over the place.

"What was that!?" Elpida asks in response to hearing the sound of something exploding and hitting the interior walls of the tank.

"We lost the driver for good!" the loader yells, grimacing at the sight of blood, brain matter and small chunks of the head having been thrown everywhere.

"What do you mean-" Elpida starts saying, but then makes the mistake to look at the driver's headless body and immediately regrets it as she shoots out of the cupola, leans to the right and vomits the rising contents of her churning stomach over the edge of the turret. Wiping her mouth with the right sleeve of her uniform, instead of diving back inside the tank, she keeps track of the ground-attack aircraft, which instead of rising beyond the clouds, simply chooses to turn for another strafing run and most likely destroy the tank for good this time.

"Gunner, start tracking the jet with the cannon! Loader, load an AP round; we are bringing that bird down!" she yells at her helmet's microphone.

"Are you serious!? How will we bring down a jet!?" the loader yells incredulously.

"I have to agree with him, Commander. Bringing down a jet with a cannon is near-impossible," the gunner comments, but does turn the turret to start tracking the jet, which is now finalizing its approach, this time electing to fly lower to the ground than its previous strafing run.

"If we abandon the tank, the pilot will most likely go after us and shred us to bits with the gatling gun, so either way we die! At least now we have a chance to fend for ourselves!"

"Yes, with the odds being like the ones when you try to guess how many beans are in a jar just by looking."

As the A-15 commences its strafing run and starts dispensing 30mm API rounds, Elpida looks nervously at the approaching horde of small snow columns that get kicked up in the air by the shells hitting the ground, feeling her heart will start beating so quickly that it will launch itself out of her chest.

"Hey, unless you want to meet the driver at the afterlife, I suggest you fire the cannon!" she shouts at the gunner, and when the jet closes the distance between them at about five hundred meters, the tank's cannon roars in response and out of it comes an APFSDS shell, heading straight for the cockpit of the aircraft.

The pilot breaks the strafing run and banks the aircraft to the right and narrowly avoids the shell, which whiffs between the cockpit and the left wing, as well as misses the rear-mounted left jet engine by mere centimeters.

"Reload again!" she says quickly as the tank's turret keeps track of the fleeing jet.

Though, the aircraft starts throwing flares all of a sudden, dumping as much power as it can to its engines to bug out.

"What the hell is it doing now?" Elpida wonders aloud, but gets her answer in the form of three F-16s flying past them and towards the fleeing A-15, which keeps dumping flares in an effort to keep the F-16s from locking on him and firing missiles.

"Seems like we are saved," the loader sighs in relief.

"Yeah. Thank God for air support, they sure as hell saved our skin," Elpida says back, but then notices something strange in the distance, at the tank's twelve o'clock. It's a tank painted white, but more specifically, a T-90.

"Enemy tank, twelve o'clock!" she yells in terror as she dives inside the tank. The gunner quickly rotates the turret and clutches a shot, but the shell hits the front of the turret and harmlessly bounces away. Seems like their luck has just ended.

The T-90 fires a shot and Elpida promptly hears the gut-wrenching sound of steel grinding against steel, as the shell penetrates and fills the crew compartment with deadly shrapnel. Thankfully, most of the shrapnel hit the gunner and the loader, killing them instantly, but a fair amount hit Elpida too, filling the front of her body with numerous cuts, grazes and even some swallow gashes here and there. Two particular pieces of shrapnel though give her two big gashes at the front of her chest, starting from the right side of her lower abdomen all the way up to her left collarbone, the two gashes starting from the same point at her lower abdomen and going away from each other as they go upwards towards her collarbone. At least her neck and face have escaped this onslaught.

 **"Aaaaagghhhhh!"** Elpida shrieks in pain as she nearly faints from shock, the pain being more than what she can handle. Tears already pour liberally from her eyes, as she looks around the compartment.

"Guys, are you still alive?" she asks, but when she gets no answer, she merely clasps her right hand over her chest, trying to cover as much of the gashes as she can and uses her left hand to pull herself out of the tank and over the turret's edge, throwing herself down on the ground. The snow somewhat cushions her fall as she lands on her back, but it still aggravates her wounds, which flare up in pain momentarily, making Elpida feel like they are on fire.

Releasing a small yelp in response, she slowly and painfully stands up, groaning and moaning in pain, tears still running on her cheeks.

"It hurts...so much," she seethes under her breath, squeezing her eyes shut for only a moment. Turning to the direction from were she had been attacked, she spots the T-90 aiming its cannon towards her. Her eyes widen silently, an expression of grim realization forming on her face.

This is the end of the line for her.

She is surely going to die.

But then her face changes its expression to a grumpy one. Like hell she is going to stand waiting for death to come and get her.

Turning to run away, the T-90 fires an HE shell that lands about three meters away from her, and when it explodes, it showers the back of her body with hot shrapnel that once again cut and graze her, but miss the back of her neck and head. Elpida finds herself momentarily airborne from the force of the explosion, before landing on the snow in her back once more. This time the pain is so strong that she can't even lift her head, silently crying on the cold ground. Her ears are ringing, her head feels heavy and her back absolutely hurts her. She feels the urge to sleep, that by closing her eyes all of her problems will stop existing. But if she does that, she will never get to see Anna again.

And for her, Anna is more important than her own pain.

Silently lying on the cold snow for another five minutes, she decides to raise her head and look around for any hostiles. Seeing that the enemy T-90 has left, she makes her way towards the now destroyed tank and quickly looks through the supplies it has. She only finds some gauze and nothing more, so she uses it to at least patch the two large gashes on her chest that seem to be bleeding faster than her other wounds. After treating herself, she slowly and painfully starts walking towards the HQ, blood dripping from her wounds and marking her path in the white landscape.

* * *

After half an hour of walking, she finally manages to reach the HQ. Her whole body is trembling in an effort to keep its temperature at normal levels and her head feels really light and dizzy from the blood she has lost. Her body feels somewhat numb, which in turn numbs the pain of her wounds, so she doesn't have to deal with that at least. Honestly speaking, it's a miracle she hasn't yet died from hypothermia or blood loss.

Her face is emotionless, her mind blank. She feels that if she starts thinking about anything, she will crumble on the spot, since her body has been strained beyond its limits.

But as she passes the HQ's gate, a horrifying display greets her that easily shocks her back to reality, as her eyes widen as much as they can in terror, the slight dizziness in her head disappearing for a moment, before returning back two times worse.

"No..." she whispers in fear, refusing to accept that what she is seeing is real. In front of her, at a distance of 20 meters, the bodies of her friends from her unit lie in a line on the cold, snowy ground, their heads sporting a bullet hole at the back and the snow around them having a dark red color. In short, they have all been executed.

"No...wh-why...why are they all dead...wh-what happened here..." She says, every next word that comes out of her mouth being louder and louder, until she is practically screaming in a hoarse and stuttering voice. She tries to run towards them, but thanks to her body's weakened state and the general numbness that is grasping her extremities, she stumbles halfway and falls to the ground flat on her chest, aggravating her wounds once again. But she barely notices the sudden spike in pain, as her brain barely registers what's going on around her. Getting up and reaching the bodies, she falls on her knees beside a particular one and turns it upright, holding its head close to her bandaged chest. Her face is full of pain and devastation, and tears flow once more from her eyes, but this time it seems like they'll never stop running.

"Anna please say something! Talk to me, please, I'm begging you!" she screams and shakes the head of Anna's body, but as much as she shakes it, no response comes from it. **"Answer me, Anna! Say something, anything! Just don't be dead, I'm begging you, please don't be dead!"**

Her hands stop shaking Anna, instead bringing her head close to her chest, with Odysseus gazing at her brown, empty eyes, which look up into the clouded skies.

 **"Why!? Why, God, why!? Why did they all have to die!? Why did Anna have to die!? What did she do to deserve this!"** she shrieks on top of her lungs, feeling like her very soul has irreparably been broken.

Her loud crying and wailing attracts the attention of the individuals who are responsible for her friends' deaths and soon enough, a squad of five soldiers that are donning uniforms similar to the one Elpida is wearing, minus the numerous tears and cuts her uniform has, and are armed with assault rifles appear from one of the buildings. One of the men raises his weapon to fire at her, but the soldier next to him puts his hand on his weapon and lowers it down so that it points on the ground.

"Don't shoot. Go and inform the major that we found another survivor; we'll keep watch over her," he says at the first soldier who nods in response and promptly goes away. The men keep watch over Elpida as she keeps grieving and sobbing over Anna's body, her screams having finally subsided because of the weakened state she is currently in.

After a few minutes of waiting, five more men appear, four being regular soldiers like the rest that are keeping watch over Elpida, but the fifth one has different insignia on his uniform and he is holding only a pistol.

"It seems that you have exceeded my expectations," the major says in genuine surprise. Motioning at his men to stay in place, he slowly approaches Elpida, who is still crying and sniffling. "I really didn't expect for you to survive. First the ambush, then the destruction of your tank; you are a truly tenacious girl that keeps hanging to life even if it is by a thread."

The major stops in front of Elpida, gazing at her with an emotionless expression.

"Though it seems this will to survive has backfired."

"Why!? Why did you kill them, Major!? What did they ever do to deserve this!?" she roars at the major with as much hostility and ferocity a human being can pack into words, causing him to be taken aback, if only for a moment. "They had wives, husbands, children to go back to and take care of! So why did you murder them!"

The major patiently waits for the young teenager to stop shouting, before answering her question.

"Direct orders from the government," he says bluntly, causing Elpida to stop crying altogether, her sorrow and sadness immediately turning into wrath and rage that fuel her weakened body with strength, the desire to seek vengeance more prevalent on the furious expression that is slowly forming on her face with each word the major speaks. "They ordered the guys on top to take care of Unit 13, saying that they could become a real threat to their regime. So, they ordered me to take care of this little problem, unless I wanted to "disappear" from the face of the earth." The major watches as Elpida slowly lowers her head until he can't see her face anymore but can hear her clenching her teeth as hard as she can.

"But the official story that will be released to the public states that the Second Division's headquarters got attacked by an enemy detachment that had managed to find themselves behind enemy lines. Unit 13 fought the enemy's forces, buying enough time for all high-ranking officers to be evacuated and all important documents to be moved or purged. In the end, though, they got overwhelmed by the enemy forces and were eliminated, even the captives. As you have already guessed, they want to use this cover-up as a means to recruit more people in the army."

Pausing, he raises his pistol and rests its sight unto Elpida's head.

"But we both know this is bullshit. The real reason they ordered their deaths was because of you, White."

The mention of this name causes Elpida to freeze in place, the anger and rage that were boiling inside her evaporating immediately.

"You were a threat of exposing to the public the existence of the Reaper program, so they wanted for you to be dealt with. You could say that you were a loose end that needed to be tightened. But since you were close to several people," he points at the bodies of her dead friends, "if they killed only you, the others would raise a concern over your disappearance, which could lead into your real identity being revealed, and in time, your involvement at the blacklisted project. So it was decided that the whole unit would be exterminated under the pretext that they were a threat to the government."

Elpida says nothing in response as her brain starts connecting the dots and soon enough comes to a conclusion about everything that has happened.

 _Her friends died because of her, because she chose to be close to them._

 _Anna died because of her._

 _She killed her._

 _The one she loved the most out of everyone._

 _The one that took care of her when she couldn't stand in her own two feet._

 _The one she considered as her own mother._

 ** _She must pay for this._**

 ** _She doesn't deserve to live anymore._**

 ** _She doesn't deserve to exist anymore._**

 ** _This world doesn't deserve to exist anymore._**

 ** _Everything must be purged, like these vermin did for her friends._**

 ** _Yes, everything must die._**

Unbeknownst to the major, with his little explanation of why the purge of Unit 13 truly happened, he has effectively broken the mind of the young girl in front of him, her already warped perception having thrown her into an endless abyss of insanity that she cannot escape.

"But I think I have wasted a lot of time. Any last words?" he asks the girl that has forfeited from holding her best friend's head in her arms, choosing to hang them limply on her sides.

"Haha..." Elpida laughs quietly, but loud enough for the major to hear her, so he abstains from pulling the trigger, in case she has to say more.

"I killed them all," she says quietly.

The major isn't sure, but he thinks he can hear her giggling in amusement. He thinks that something is really wrong here, because he can clearly hear her giggling happily now.

"Haha...ahahaha... **AHAHAHAHAHA!** " Elpida laughs like a deranged individual and when she looks at the major, he instinctively takes a step back.

 **"Why are you _afraid_ , Major? Hehehe...I only want to _PLAY_ with you like you played with my friends~,"** she says in the most twisted and sadistic grin a human can exhibit, her eyes brimming with warped excitement, the lust for a bloodbath clear as the day. Her eyes start crying blood and her irises change color to bright magenta. She slowly rises to her feet, her body twitching slightly like she is getting shocked.

Both the major and the soldiers that have rushed besides him, having seen the young girl that could probably star in the next Exorcist movie, raise their guns to open fire, but an invisible shockwave that originates from Elpida knocks them down on the cold, hard ground, which is now devoid of any snow.

"What the..." the major trails off in confusion as the snow in a radius of thirty meters from Elpida has mysteriously become weightless and now floats in the air, slowly slithering its way towards her, and upon reaching her, swirling around her clockwise.

"Major, what the hell's going on!?" one of the soldiers asks as he gazes at the swirling snow that forms a pillar that has a height of at least ten meters and completely covers Elpida. Another soldier fires a whole magazine's worth of bullets at the snowy pillar, but it seems to have no effect whatsoever.

The major doesn't respond as he watches the pillar of snow swirling faster and faster, until it suddenly stops and the snow gets thrown everywhere, revealing Elpida and another figure that wasn't there before.

Elpida still grins back at the major maniacally, but she has stopped crying blood and the bright magenta color of her eyes is slowly reverting back to their original light purple. But that isn't what has stunned the major and his men.

It is the two meters tall figure that floats behind Elpida, dressed in a white hooded cloak. Inside the hood resides a skull, its eyesockets filled with two wisps of red light, emitting nothing but death as they slowly gaze at the soldiers, who freeze in pure fear as they look at this monster. It really does look like a replica of a Grim Reaper, further reinforced by the two meters tall scythe it holds in its skeletal arms.

"M-M-M-M-Monster!" one of the soldiers starts stuttering really hard, slowly and shakily raising his assault rifle to point it at the Grim Reaper that stands behind Elpida like some kind of guardian angel that watches over her.

 **"Well then, Major..."** Elpida starts saying as she feels her whole body growing heavy and numb, keeping herself standing becoming increasingly more difficult. _**"...shall we play a game?"**_

Elpida finally gives in and crumbles to the ground face first, losing consciousness immediately.

The Grim Reaper simply gazes at the men, before releasing a terrifying screech and launching itself at the men, waving its scythe like it weighs nothing. The sounds of gunfire, screams and flesh getting cut fills the air momentarily, before silence returns to the base once more.

* * *

"-and after hearing him calling me White, my brain was like 'Nope, fuck that shit, I'm outta here' and promptly blacked out. Woke up a few hours later in the infirmary with a ton of gauze around my whole body; a doctor had hid in the base and somehow managed to avoid the major's men. Told me he found me out in the front entrance and dragged me all the way to infirmary to treat my wounds.

"After that, we took all the supplies we could and got the hell out of there. Spent the next few days trying to make our way back to civilization and upon reaching a small village, we took our own separate ways. At first, I tried to locate my friends Calliope and Chara, but when I couldn't find them, I assumed the government killed them because of their involvement with me. So I then searched for my friends from the orphanage and actually found them. Called a few favors from them, such as getting me a new identity and hacking your servers to get me as a transfer student."

"So your real name isn't Elpida?" Assam makes an inquiry.

"It is my real name; the fake identity was used at my country. Funny thing how you can become a whole other person when you dye your hair brown, change your haircut and wear colored eye lenses," she chuckles in slight amusement. "Anyway, that concludes my past. Any questions?"

"How do we know you aren't lying to us?" Erika asks immediately, though it isn't in a confrontational manner. "If your past is so horrible, why are you speaking about it so openly?"

"Well, it has been two years since then, so I have mostly gotten over it. Plus, even if I bitched and moaned and got all emo about it, it wouldn't change the fact that it happened," she answers back. "Also, it might help people understand why I am behaving...in certain ways, you could say." Odysseus taps her the side of her head slightly. "And if you still don't believe me, my whole body is covered with scars. Miho can confirm this."

As the girls keep talking, a man from Blackout approaches them.

"Excuse me for interrupting your conversation, but I have a message from the Director," he says as he presses a few buttons at a tablet he is holding and passes it to Odysseus, who is the closest girl in him.

 _"Test, test, one-two, one-two, is this thing on?"_ a voice says from the tablet and Odysseus bursts in laughter, causing the girls to look at her with confusion.

Except for the Anglerfish team who are sweating a little.

"I can't believe it, the old man has finally learned how to use a recorder!" she laughs loudly, unaware of the consequences her words might have. "Thought he would keep using vinyls and gramophones till the end of his life!"

 _"I can assure you, Odysseus, I know how to use technology like most other people,"_ the voice says coldly and Odysseus simply freezes in time and place, her eyes shut and a hollow smile etched on her face.

"Hey boss, how have you been?" she says slowly, as her hands start shaking slightly.

 _"Flattery won't work, Odysseus. You might be exempted from some rules, but that doesn't mean you have free reign over everything. I'll need you to come to my office when you come back to base."_

Odysseus is mentally screaming, the blood from her face rapidly draining and her brain is already considering what is going to happen to her and if running away is a better option.

 _"Also, I'd like to ask you too, Miss Nishizumi, to come to my office. I'd like to discuss a private matter with you."_

"Eh? Ah! Y-Yes, Director!" Miho quickly responds.

 _"So, introductions first. Although I will not disclose my real name yet, you can call me by the name 'Director'. I am the CEO of the private military company Blackout. I would like to invite all of you to come visit my company's headquarters and if possible, I'd like to make a deal with you."_

"What kind of deal?" Maho asks immediately with suspicion.

 _"If am not wrong, your carriers have been beached in the so-called 'New lands' and you have claimed parts of them as you territories, right?"_

"That is correct."

 _"These new lands that were created after the earthquakes contain a high amount of resources, such as steel, oil and more, which are crucial to any serious military force. So I'd like for you to allow Blackout to mine the resources."_

"What's in for us?" Kay asks interestingly.

 _"I believe it would be better for both sides if you presented a list of demands; I was thinking for the meeting to be held tomorrow. This should give you plenty of time to form one."_

"St. Gloriana will accept the invitation," Darjeeling says calmly after seeping some tea, and everyone turns to look at her.

"Darjeeling, are you sure about that?" Assam asks in concern, since she isn't used in Darjeeling making decisions so fast.

"I think it is a really tempting offer. Not only we don't have the means to extract and process these resources, the Director is giving us a blank check on our end of the deal. Or at least something close to it."

"Pravda also accepts the invitation!" Katyusha pipes up, not wanting to be seen as a scared little girl in front of the other commanders.

"It might be beneficial for the girls back in the carrier, so I'm in too," Kay responds.

"Then we accept too," Maho curtly replies.

 _"Excellent. There should be a helicopter arriving within an hour to pick you up and transport you here to the base. I look forward to working with you in the future."_

* * *

 **A/N: And this rewriting is finally done. Took more time than I thought it would, but I believe that the end result justifies it.** **A** **nyway, a** **s always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and** **there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**


	11. Chapter 11: Questions and Answers

**A/N:The chapter will be rewritten,as part of the rewriting project**

* * *

 **The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 11: Questions and Answers**

* * *

 **Thursday**

 **25th of May, 2 Y.A.**

 **Kumamoto perfecture**

 **12:40 pm**

 **En route to Nishizumi estate,** **ETA: 5 minutes**

A lone BH-FI helicopter can be seen flying in the sunny sky, a fair distance from the forested ground. Inside its cabin sit four people, two men and two women, all members of the Black Mambas, the special operations team of Blackout. Everyone is sitting in silence, checking their equipment and weapons.

"So, John kicked the bucket huh?", a woman says while checking her new vest and pistols she is carrying with her. She had green eyes and red hair, though the tone of her hair color was darker than Annabelle's. She was about half a head shorter than Vin. She sported four USP 45s', along with a Steyr Aug which had an ACOG scope. The pistols had extended magazines and were painted red.

"Yep, Vin said when their helicopter crashed, one of the rotor blades cut through the cabin and cut him in two.", Luminous answers back, inspecting her empty TLRR sniper rifle, before inserting the magazine, that seemed like a revolver's chamber, holding three .60 Cal bullets. Despite that, it was relatively light, clocking at about 6 kg when loaded. Due to the bullet's caliber, the sniper should always be fired from a stationary position while having TLRR's special bipod deployed.

"Vin, you never told me that you where in a helicopter crash!?", the red haired woman says in genuine worry.

"And that's why I didn't tell you Rika, because you always overreact when I get hurt.", Vin answers while looking out of the cabin's small window, having finished with equipment checking.

"Come on Vin, don't be like that on Rika, you know why she is always worried.", Theodore piped up, holding his HAWKS light machine gun that featured an ammunition box with electronic counting.

"Yeah, yeah I know, but it was pure luck that I found her. Should I have decided not to take the patrol mission, she wouldn't be here with us now.", Vin answers back.

"But you did and here we are. Anyway, how was your mission Rika?", Luminous says, wanting to know how her friend is doing.

"It was really easy, just your normal bandit base. Though I have to say, it would be nice if I had these new suits and vests they gave us.", Rika says, looking at her new uniform and vest.

"They said that only we and the Anglerfish team got these, since they are pretty pricey to make them.", Theodore says, having also finished with equipment checking.

"Oh, the Black Wolves, huh? How are they? Last time I checked they had just returned from that set up. Heard they brought down a whole base of trained soldiers and even killed the enemy commander in a really gruesome way."

"We met them during the first phase of operation Downfall, so we don't know, but they seemed like someone who could pull it. Even the Antelope team seemed like they could be on par with the Black Wolves.", Luminous says.

"Actually, they should be on phase three of operation Downfall now, either moving out or fighting. I just hope these idiots don't have to dig graves for the dead.", Vin says in a sad tone, knowing full well that this is a dream that will probably get flushed down the drain pretty soon.

"Really? Well, I'm sure they will be just fine, they are not one of the elites for no reason", Rika says with a smile.

"They are not alone Rika, there are girls from the school ships participating", Luminous says in a grim tone. Rika's smile vanishes instantly, replaced by a sad expression.

"Twenty seconds to touchdown!", the helicopter pilot yells from the cockpit, opening the cabin door remotely. The beating of rotor blades can be heard, as the occupants gaze at the ground below them where a walled off estate sits, the Nishizumi house. Near the sea the ruined city of Kumamoto sits, half of it below sea level. Clicking the weapon safeties off, the moment the helicopter touches down all of its occupants get out and with guns raised on their shoulders, they start scanning the surrounding area. Not seeing anything, they lower their weapons so that the barrels point on the ground. "We will be two clicks to the North, when you are finished just call us and we will come, our call sign is Cobra.", the pilot yells before the helicopter starts lifting itself in the air and start heading North.

"So, what are we looking for again?", Vin asks the rest of the squad.

"You idiot, we are looking for anything related to Nishizumi Shiho and her daughters or related to a secret experiment the government had. Though I'd like to know what kind of experiment was.", Rika answers to Vin, being used to his selective memory.

"Anyway, let's just go in.", Theodore said, lifting his light machine gun and proceeding to bust down the front door with a kick.

"Careful there Theodore, I don't want to be paying any fine for property damage", Luminous joked, entering the house with the rest of the squad. They were in a small hallway, where you would obviously remove your shoes. "Won't remove your heels princess?", Vin said with a smirk to Rika,who in response punched him lightly on the back of his head.

"Shut up and go explode in a corner or something.", Rika says with a pouting face. Walking the small hallway, they come in a huge open space, possibly the living room. Everywhere they could see were expensive furniture. Even the television was one of those experimental ones with integrated holographic capabilities.

"Damn, these girls sure had an easy life.", Luminous remarks, picking a vase that probably costs more than her yearly income.

"I wouldn't be so sure about it. Since I was really interested in Shenshadou, I did some research before coming in Japan. There are two main styles of Senshadou. The Nishizumi style and the Shimada style. Both of them are brutal in my opinion. And I've heard that Shiho was raising her daughters solely for the purpose of inheriting the style. I'm sure she cared for them but forcing her ideals on them was a mistake. So I can tell you with confidence that they had it rougher than everyone thinks.",Vin responds, opening drawers to see if there is anything of importance.

"Poor girls. It's like they were trapped inside a golden cage. Beautiful from outside, hellish from the inside.", Rika comments sadly, opening a cabinet and withdrawing a couple of games for the Playstation DVR(Diving Virtual Reality). "Oh my God, they have the Playstation DVR?!", Rika screams like a true fangirl, prompting Vin to put his hand over her mouth to silence her.

"Don't scream you idiot, there might be enemies nearby!", Vin hisses in a low voice, looking around for any suspicious movement. Rika nods slowly and so Vin removes his hand. Going through the titles, Rika finds mainly action games such as 'Panzer Battalion', 'Blitzkrieg Zero' and even a physical copy of 'World of Tanks Commanders', the DVR release of the popular free to play game.

"I remember this, I tried it in a friend once.", Rika murmured to herself. Looking a bit better at the cabinet, she withdraws the console and two DVR helmets. "Everyone thought that we would need at least 50 more years for the technology but the guys at Sony somehow managed to make the impossible possible. I'll take them with me to give them to the girls." Grabbing the console and helmet, she stuffs them in her backpack, before stuffing all the games the cabinet had.

Luminous was looking at some paintings that depicted various tanks, mainly German ones. _They look really expensive,_ she thought while putting them down in case there is something behind them.

Theodore on the other hand kept overwatch, his gun pointing its barrel on the ground, but his finger tapping slowly on the trigger guard. After searching the whole living room, the squad decided to separate and search the house.

Luminous checked the rooms in the east. Entering the room at the end of a long hallway, she finds it to be the room of a normal teenage girl. It's not too big, yet not too small, just the right size. On a basket in the corner of the room sits a Paunzerfaust rocket with a ribbon on its shaft, it's launching module sitting on the other side of the room. Above the bed sits a shelf filled with Boko dolls. Grabbing one of the dolls, she hits it lightly so the dust would get off it, before starting to inspect it. _I have heard about these dolls. They are pretty popular here in Japan. And it seems like this is the fully-bandaged limited edition one. Might as well take it back._ Putting the stuffed animal in her backpack, she starts searching the drawers for anything useful, but the only thing she finds is a photograph. It depicts Miho sitting on the shoulders of a woman dressed in business clothing, presumably her mother. Miho has an expression of amazement, looking at the left of the camera, while her mother looks up to her in amusement. Maho is on the left of Shiho, looking at the camera with her signature stoic expression, holding her mother's skirt. The girls look to be at the most 7 years old. _They look so happy, yet Vin has the exact opposite opinion. Just what happened to the family?_ With that question on her mind, she flips the photograph and behind is written with black ink _, To my most beloved daughters, Miho and Maho. Shiho._ With even more questions on her mind, she puts the photograph in one of the vest's empty pockets, before continuing to search the room.

* * *

Rika had somehow managed to find herself in the kitchen. All the previous rooms she had searched had nothing of importance, most of them being just big empty spaces. Opening the cabinets, the only thing she finds is spoiled food, the smell being quite repulsive, especially when she opens the fridge. Opening one particular cabinet though, she finds lots of canned food, especially canned food for dogs. _OK, that's definitely weird. What is dog food doing here? Maybe they had a dog or something._ As to answer her question, she hears something growling behind her. Her whole body tensing, she slowly turns around, only to see a really slim Shiba Inu looking at her, its black pointed ears lowered and showing its teeth. Getting an idea, she slowly takes hold one of the cans of dog food, she slowly lowly opens it and places it in front of her. The dog immediately stops growling and carefully approaches Rika and the food. Seeing that she is not a threat, the black haired Shiba Inu starts eating the canned food fast, a sign that it hadn't eat for at least two days.

"Poor thing, you were just hungry", Rika says, caressing it's short black fur. Picking the tag on its collar, it reads _Kuro_. _Matches with the color of its fur. Now for the most important question...is it a boy or a girl?_ Blushing so hard that her face could be mistaken for a traffic light, she lifts the small dog and looks between its legs.

"So you are a girl, huh? Well Kuro, want to come with me back at my base? We might find your master", she says, looking at Kuro's little black eyes. Kuro just barks twice and proceeds to lick Rika all over the face. "Stop it, you are tickling me!", she laughs, holding the small dog with her hands.

* * *

Theodore was searching the rooms that where North, finding a lot of guest rooms. Opening the room in a particular room, he enters before closing the door. It is a very simple room, having only a few things. In one of the room's walls stands a bookshelf, filled with books about strategy and tactics and various battles of WW2, such as the battle of Stalingrand or the Ardennes Assault. It also had an encyclopedia of German tanks and even an autobiography of Erwin Rommel, also known as the desert fox. At the nearby desk sits a picture of two girls on top of a Panzer II, the younger one visibly tugging the shirt of the older. They look to be in elementary school. He keeps searching the rest of the room, but finds nothing of value so he grabs the picture and puts it inside his backpack,before exiting the room to continue his search

* * *

Vin finds himself in an office looking room. There are various cabinets filled with lots of files and documents. There is a big desk in the center of the room. _I'm sure there's bound to be something of importance in here_ , he quietly hums in his mind, starting opening the cabinets and going through the documents. But most of the documents are Shenshadou related, either related to official matches or bureaucratic things. Looking at the desk, an idea comes to his mind. Looking down from the desk, he finds a small switch. _Jackpot! I knew movies had a grain of truth!,_ he victoriously claims in his mind as he flips the switch. A small panel in the floor next to the desk moves sideways, revealing a small empty space. Inside it resides a small blue box, some documents that have the words confidential and blacklisted all over the them. On top of the documents sits a small USB stick. Grinning, he picks the items and puts them inside his backpack.

Tapping his earpiece to speak, he says to the rest of the squad, "Guys, meet me at the living room, I found some pretty important stuff".

* * *

After five minutes, they all converge in the leaving room, though Rika and Luminous are holding something with their arms.

" Okay, first of all, Rika...where in the name of C4 and binary explosives did you find a dog?", Vin says, pointing at the small dog Rika is carrying.

"I found her in the kitchen and she looked so hungry, I couldn't leave her alone! And her name is Kuro by the way.", Rika says and Kuro barks once.

"OK, I'll not ask how you know the dog's gender but whatever. Now, Luminous, where did you find a Panzerfaust with ammunition?!", Vin says incredulously, pointing at the shoulder mounted rocket launcher she is holding.

"I found it in Miho's room, at least I think it's her room.", Luminous says nonchalantly.

"Pretty hardcore family huh?", Theodore comments.

"You don't say, anyway, let's call the helicopter and get out of here. I'll tell you what I found while on our way back to base". Vin proceeds to call the helicopter, telling them to land in the garden behind the house. Exiting to the garden, the huge open space before them was littered with boulders big enough to cover them whole. There was even a small river passing, cutting the garden in two, with a really small wooden bridge connecting the sides.

"It's nice, isn't it Kuro?", Rika says while looking at Kuro. But the black Shiba Inu is looking at the wall at the limits of the garden in front of them, growling and showing her teeth. "What's wrong girl?"

Suddenly a section of the wall explodes and in come men dressed in uniforms that are white and have red tron-like lines all over them. They wear metal helmets that resemble the ones from Killzone. Crouching on one knee, they immediately start firing at the squad, who dive behind the boulders for cover in response. Lifting his LMG, Theodore mows down the enemy soldiers who stand in the open, like they think they are invisible. But more and more uniformed men enter, slowly but steadily overwhelming the spec ops team. Vin is firing his SCAR-H at semi-automatic, spending two to three bullets for each enemy. Rika is using her Steyr Aug to go for either headshots or heartshots, sometimes hitting the mark, sometimes missing. Luminous is laying prone next to a boulder, having set up her sniper rifle. As one of the enemies tries to rush through the bullet exchange, Luminous aims for his head and fires. A sound that resembles more a small cannon firing than a gun is heard and the huge .60 Cal bullet splits the target's head in two, resembling more a watermelon that has exploded and the enemy actually does a backflip from the sheer power of the round. Luminous shields her face from the heat the weapon produces, the air near it visibly refracting the light. She pulls down manually the bolt to cycle the revolver like magazine,waiting for a small led light in the scope to turn green, indicating the temperature has fallen enough to be fired again. Vin just casually throws one of his bombs to an enemy, getting stuck on his chest, but instead of panicking, the enemy starts running towards them.

"Shit, enemy suicide bomber!", Vin screams, trying to gun down the running soldier. Luminous fires her sniper bullet, cutting in half the soldier's left leg. But instead of crying in pain, the soldier just keeps crawling to them. Vin detonates the explosive and the enemy, along with two others that were near him all explode in pieces, like a morbid jigsaw puzzle. "The fuck is wrong with these guys?!", Vin exclaims, reloading his now empty assault rifle.

"Don't know and don't wanna know", Luminous yells, firing the last bullet that rips through the abdomen of an enemy, the force enough to drag the intestines with it and forcing them out of his lower back. Kuro is as close to Rika as she can, covering her eyes with her paws and whimpering.

"Guys, we have a problem!", Theodore yells, finishing reloading his HAWKS light machinegun. Everyone looks at the destroyed part of the garden wall and sees a man clad in a white suit with red tron-like lines. The suit seems to be made of steel or another metal as it shines under the sunny midday sun. In his hands, an XM134 "Minigun", with a backpack on his back full of ammunition for this hungry monster.

"Holy nitroglycerin, we are going to die!", Vin exclaims and dives behind the boulder he has been using as cover, like the others do. The minigun spools and starts firing, the bullets hitting the boulders and his allies, the deafening sound echoing through the whole estate. Stopping its fire to cool down the barrels, everyone picks out from their respective cover and starts firing at the enemy. The bullets hit and bounce, with only the huge .60 Cal bullets denting it a little.

"We can't even scratch him! What's this, the fucking final boss of a game?!", Rika yells.

"If he is the boss, he is broken as fuck!", Vin answers back, raining bullets everywhere as the minigun spews death from its barrels.

"Then lets patch him! Vin, when he stops firing, throw all your explosives on him but do not detonate them!", Luminous yells to her earpiece. Doing as he is told, the moment the suppressive fire stops, Vin throws all of his explosives on top of the two-meter tall man, sticking to his body, arms and weapon. The man does not make any move to remove them and calmly waits for the minigun to cool down enough so he can start firing it again. Hearing the minigun spooling, Luminous exit her cover, shouldering the Panzerfaust and aiming it at the man's chest. "Special delivery straight from the Reichstag you bastard!", she yells, her German accent finally surfacing. Firing, the rocket propels itself straight for the enemy, passing between some bullets that have started exiting the barrels of the minigun and colliding with the metal, the rocket explodes, causing Vin's explosives to detonate in response. The only thing that remains is a crater and burning bits of metal.

"Maybe we went a bit overboard", she comments, looking at where the man was standing, still keeping her German accent.

"So, how's the weather back in Berlin?", Vin teases Luminous, noticing her accent has changed.

"Go explode bomb nerd", she says, having switched languages to German. Getting near one of the bodies, she removes the helmet and lets it fall to the ground from what she sees. "Guys, you need to see this", Luminous says in a trembling voice.

"What is wr-", Vin doesn't finish his sentence, squinting his eyes at what he sees. The face of the soldier is anything but normal. There is no mouth on his face, only skin covering the area of where it would be, his eyelids seem to be cut and the eyes to be cybernetic implants.

"That's...very disturbing", Rika adds.

"Who can do something like that?", Luminous says, averting her gaze as it seems to be too much for her.

"Who knows, but let's just leave it at that. Anyway, let's get some photos and show them at command.", Vin says and retrieves a small camera, taking some pictures of the dead soldiers and grabbing one of their helmets to take it back at base.

"The helicopter arrived", Theodore interrupts, seeing the BH-FI landing in front of them. Everyone gets in and closing the cabin door, the helicopter takes off and starts heading back to base, Vin showing the rest what he found in the house.

* * *

At the nearby forest, a man is seen on top of a branch of a tree, looking at the helicopter while the barrel of his weapon, a MK-14, slowly exhales gunpowder smoke. On the ground beneath him are soldiers like the ones the team just fought, all with a single bullet hole in their heads. _I finally found you_ , he thinks, a grin forming on his face. Getting down from the tree, he starts walking deeper in the forest, eventually disappearing.

* * *

 **A/N: And mission completed! Answering some questions and raising even more, the spec ops team found some interesting things. Next chapter will be the meeting of Blackout and the commanders and maybe learn something about the secret government project. Anyway,** **a** **s always,** **suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**

 _Explanations:_

 _BH-FI:Stands for Blackout Helicopter Fast Insertion. It's a military helicopter, developed by Blackout for fast insertions and extractions. Though lightly armored, it makes up for it by having extreme agility and speed. It is also equipped with an EMP system, though pilots receive special training first in order to use it. It is also equipped with an advanced optical camouflage that makes it immune to lock-on systems and laser guided ones._

 _TLRR: Stands for Tactical Long Range Rifle. It fires .60 Cal bullets from a revolver like magazine. Maximum capacity is three bullets on the magazine. Has a special built-in bipod that absorbs most of the recoil._

 _HAWKS: A light machine gun that has a good balance between fire rate and accuracy. The ammunition box features an electronic counting screen._

 _All of the original weapons are being produced by Blackout._


	12. Chapter 12: Don't Forget Us

**A/N: Before starting the next chapter, I noticed that thanks to my phone's autocorrect and the writer fanfiction has, some words or names tend to be wrong and some sentences has whole words missing, so if you find anything of the above, notify me please. As they say, two pairs of eyes are better than one. Now, let's get the party starting!**

 **A/N2:The chapter will be rewritten,as part of the rewriting project**

* * *

 **The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 12:** **Don't Forget Us**

* * *

Opening her eyes slowly, Miho looks up at the overcast sky, with snowflakes falling slowly to the ground, joining the rest in the snowy field she is currently in. Blinking a few times, she uses her left hand to rub both of her eyes, before sitting up from where she is lying. Everywhere she looks, there is only a snowy plain, not even trees exist. She doesn't feel cold or tired. Standing up, she hits her clothes a bit so that the snow that's stuck on them will fall and looking a bit around she says loudly,"Is anyone here?", but she gets no response. "Hello?", she says loudly, but once again, only silence greets her. Getting a bit worried, she starts walking towards a random direction. "Sister, mother, are you here?", she says a bit louder, fastening her pace as panic slowly settles in her mind. _No, I must not panic! I am sure there is a reason why I am in this place. Maybe it's just a dream and I'll wake up soon enough back to the lab,_ she thinks to herself, her pace slowing as she calms. Looking behind her though, she suddenly sees the wrecks of many tanks and the bodies of highschool girls lying everywhere. There is also a flaming Tiger that seems like it is coming towards her. Instantly panicking, she starts running away from the tank, screaming and crying, the tears hitting the snow that gets crushed under her feet. After a full minute of sprinting,she stops to catch her breath, dropping to her knees as it seems she has pushed herself. Looking at the ground momentarily, she lifts her head to find that she is no longer in a tank graveyard, but in the middle of a plain again. In front of her is a figure, more specifically a black wolf. It stands there motionless, its red eyes peering into Miho's, as if peering straight to her soul. Miho falls to the ground with a scared expression on her face but the wolf is just keeping its gaze on Miho. After a full minute, Miho finally relaxes her body a bit, seeing that the wolf is not a threat, but keeping her guard up just in case.

"I don't suppose you know were we are Mr. Wolf, do you?", Miho says with a smile, standing up.

"Actually I do", a voice answers and the wolf bursts into a black cloud that starts spinning counterclockwise, shaping into the figure of a human. Seeing this, Miho let's out a small yelp of surprise, as she gets startled from what she sees. "Is that all you got?", the figure mocks, before the smoke dissipates to reveal the owner of the voice. It's a woman that looks to be at her late 20s - early 30s, at least 170cm tall, has a well developed body, long black hair and ruby red eyes. Her clothes are a bit questionable, wearing only a black corset that seems to be a tight fit and leaves her bare abdomen to be seen by anyone. She also wears a black miniskirt, red stockings and black high heels. But the most shocking features are the black bat-like wings in her back and the ram-like horns that protrude from her temples. Miho is paralyzed with terror, her eyes wide and her mouth agape. She stumbles backwards, tripping on her own legs and falling to the ground. "Why are you so scared? It's not like am a Demon!", the woman says with a hair-raising sadistic grin. Both of her hands get enveloped in black smoke and when the smoke dissipates, they are covered by two black gauntlets, covered with red lines, that go until just below her elbows. Miho's brain screams at her to start running, but no muscle will budge. "I would suggest you run little lamb", the woman softly exclaims, before disappearing.

Miho instantly gets up and starts running, tears running from her eyes. The woman appears where Miho was sitting and punches the ground, making a crater and throwing snow everywhere. "Good, you must be the first of my masters that dodged one of my attacks", the woman exclaims in genuine praise. _Masters? What is she talking about and what is going on here?! I want my mother!,_ Miho yells inside her head, trying her hardest to not cry but failing. Meanwhile, the woman follows Miho with her gaze, putting her right leg a bit behind her left, bending her knees slightly and arching her back forward, as if she is ready to sprint. A red aura starts to emit from the soles of her heels, snaking up her legs in a counterclockwise fashion. When the aura snakes up to her thighs, she flexes her muscles and literally launches herself towards Miho, creating a huge shockwave behind her. Putting her right arm behind her right shoulder, she clenches her hand into a fist, ready to strike Miho. Miho turns backwards to see where is the woman and she sees a black blur coming towards her. Shifting her body to face the incoming blur, she barely manages to cross her hands in front of her face, before something metallic hits her and launches her at least ten meters horizontally, hitting the snow and barreling for another 20 meters before coming to a stop, facing the overcast sky. She can hear someone walking towards her and when she tries to lift herself, she finds her body too exhausted to do anything. Even breathing seems to be difficult. "I'm genuinely impressed with your resilience. No one has ever survived this strike. You must be a really strong girl, how old are you, six? Though not strong enough to be my master." Grabbing Miho from the neck with her left hand and lifting her in her eye level, she speaks with a smile," Sorry, but this is how things are done in these places. Blame the ones that sent you here. Anyway, lets get done with this thing." She cocks her fist back and her gauntlet slowly gets covered by a red aura. Miho is just too exhausted to even lift her hands, probably because of the extremely powerful punch she received. _Sister, mother, please save me!_ , Miho thinks as she squeezes her eyes, tears running liberally. As the woman goes for the killing strike, a white scythe stops her hand, yanking it sideways. The woman immediately drops Miho and turns to face the wielder of the scythe. "Alvion why the hell did you-", the woman stops mid sentence as she sees who is wielding the scythe. "You are not Alvion. What's your name and where's my sister?", the woman says quietly, her voice filled with hostility.

"You mean this one?", the wielder of the scythe points a few meters behind them, where a figure that also looks like she is in her late 20s - early 30s is lying motionless, breathing laboriously. She has white long hair, bright blue eyes, angel-like wings coming from her back and a halo that floats above her head. Her clothes consist of a white cloak, a white tunic, a white skirt, blue pantyhose and white boots. Above the tunic is a metallic breastplate. Also in the sides of her thighs are tied metal plates for extra protection and her hands are also covered by metallic white gauntlets covered with blue lines.

"You will pay for this you whore!", the black haired woman screams and vanishes out of plain sight, only to reappear behind the girl with the scythe. The girl swiftly ducks, avoiding a punch and spinning clockwise, she hits the woman's leg, causing her to lose her balance and as she is falling the girl kicks her with so much power that she goes flying some one hundred meters away, her landing being marked by snow getting thrown in the air. Miho, using all of her willpower, sits up with great effort, only to see in front of her a tall girl with a scythe looking at her. "Are you okay Miho?", the figure says.

"S-Sakura? W-Wait, what are you doing here?! Isn't this a dream? And why do you look so different?", Miho says sluggishly, feeling like she is about to pass out. Indeed, Sakura has white hair and bright blue eyes, not unlike the ones the woman named Alvion has. "You normally have ginger hair and brown eyes, what happened?", Miho says in a distressed tone.

"It's a really long story. But one thing is sure, this is not a dream. Don't freak out, but...I think we are no longer in our world. Wherever we are, these girls behind us will know.", Sakura says with a very serious face. Helping Miho to stand up, she grabs the scythe with both of her hands and swings it horizontaly in front of her. The sound of steel hitting steel echoes everywhere. Sakura has managed to block a knife slash from the woman, the resulting clash creating a shockwave that lifts Miho off of her feet and throw her once again to the snow-covered ground.

"You are really good little girl!", the woman hisses through gritted teeth.

"Is that why you unseathed your weapon?", Sakura says calmly, having noticed the black dagger the woman is holding in her right hand. Pushing the scythe away from her, the woman jumps back to gain some breathing space and to get ready for her next strike. "If you think you will be able to strike me then come.", Sakura mocks with an emotionless tone. Grabbing the scythe with both hands, she swings it to the ground, the blade getting lodged in it and immediately a dome of semi-transparent blue color is raised around her. The woman launches herself to the blue dome, hitting it with such force that every hit produces a small shockwave. Miho is just sitting on the snow watching the fight, unable to process anything that is happening. To her, everything seems so surreal.

The dome slowly but surely starts to crack, the cracks growing with every hit and with a well placed one it gets fragmented in pieces, the blade piercing through. Sakura sidesteps to avoid the dagger and swinging the scythe horizontaly, she pierces the woman's abdomen. The woman starts coughing huge amounts of blood, grabbing weakly the scythe's poll. "Seems you've lost.", Sakura says calmly. The woman just looks at her, eyes wide open, a sinister grin on her face.

"Spoiler alert kiddo. We are not human beings!", she says, laughing like a maniac. Coating the black dagger in red aura,she thrusts it in Sakura's chest, piercing her left lung and missing her heart by millimeters. Sakura immediately let's the scythe and grabs the woman's hand.

"Easy there. One wrong move and you are dead." The woman rips the scythe out of her abdomen and throws it back at her sister, who is slowly rising. Miho is just watching, wanting to help her friend, but fear holding her down. _What can I do, what can I do, what can I do?!,_ she thinks again and again, but she can't find an answer. _I need to do something!_ , she yells inside her head. In the meantime, Alvion is finally standing up, holding her scythe with her right hand, walking towards her sister and Sakura. "Can't handle a teenage girl Alvion?", Alvion's sister says in a mocking tone.

"Silence Elvion. I was just caught off guard. Even you had to unseath your weapon,hm?Who is this little girl?", Alvion says in a sweet voice, pointing at Miho.

"My supposed master. She actually fared better than the previous, but she wasn't strong enough.", Elvion says in a neutral tone, still keeping her dagger inside Sakura. Sakura's breathing is getting more laborious by the minute, as blood starts filling her punctured lung.

"And what are you going to do with her?", Alvion asks, earning a rather creepy face from her sister. "Very well, do as you please.", she responds back, stopping in front of Sakura. Elvion pulls out the knife and the ginger haired girl falls to her knees, covering the entry wound with her right hand and coughing even more blood. "Any last words?", the white haired woman asks, placing her scythe in the base of Sakura's neck.

Sakura, her hair and eye color having reverted back to normal, just looks to Miho with teary eyes and a sincere smile. "Sorry Miho, looks like you will be alone from now on...just make sure you don't forget us", Sakura says with a soothing voice.

Alvion swings her scythe and decapitates the teenage girl, the blade of the scythe passing cleanly through the neck. As the head falls to the ground, blood starts squirting everywhere, painting the snow red. Miho is crying, her head buried in her hands, the tears passing through the space between her fingers. She feels sadness, guilt, remorse, fear, but most of all she feels angry, really angry. With tears still flowing down her cheeks, she stands up, a hunger for revenge growing inside her chest. As both Elvion and Alvion turn to face her, they see the air around Miho pulsing outwards, the ground cracking from the invisible pressure. Miho's hair gradually change color from brown to black and her eyes to red. Besides her materializes a black wolf with sinister red eyes. Before any of the sisters can say anything, the wolf flash steps behind Alvion and bites her on her right shoulder, forcing her to leave her scythe fall on the ground and try grab the wolf's body, who keeps flailing around, trying to rip a chunk of his prey's meat and breastplate. Elvion tries to help, but she feels something wrapping around her neck and pulling her down. Looking down, she sees Miho tightening her grip on her throat, physically chocking her. Spinning her around herself, Miho throws Elvion into Alvion, who had just managed to get rid of the wolf by snapping his neck. Hitting Alvion, both sisters go barreling across the snowy ground for about 10 meters before stopping. Miho is slowly walking towards them, another black wolf on her side, growling and showing his teeth. Miho and the wolf start appearing and dissappearing in view and soon, the whole landscape starts shifting from a snowy plain to an underground laboratory. The wolf starts running to Alvion with the intent of ripping her throat in pieces, but before he can strike, the whole space changes to the underground laboratory, the wolf hitting a wall and breaking it in the process, visible cracks covering the concrete.

"Excellent, we got the results we wanted Subject 23, you can go back to your room.", a voice says through the intercom of the underground lab.

"Doctor Mannheim, you have pushed the girl too far, sending her in that place and causing one of the other subjects' death is unethical! How many girls have you sent in that living hell, only to get slaughtered?!", another voice yells, definitely belonging to an old man.

"As long as we have results, nothing is unethical Doctor Azarin. And may I remind you who is the head scientist of this project?", Dr. Mannheim says with an arrogant tone. Miho is standing quietly in front of the room's exit door, that resembles more of a bunker door. Gazing at it she whispers, "Hunt", and the wolf brings the door down, actually bending the 40mm thick steel door, before exiting the room and hunting everyone he sees. Alarms go off as blood is splattered everywhere from the ripped throats the wolf has bitten. Miho walks slowly out of the room and everything becomes black.

* * *

Miho opens slowly her eyes, gazing at the ceiling of her room. She stays like that for a full minute, wondering what she has just seen. Was it a dream? But it felt too real. Perhaps a memory? But then again, why would she forget something like that? And who was this girl, Sakura? So many questions and no answers. Sighing lightly, she clears her mind of any questions she might have. Looking around, she sees her sister sitting in a plastic chair next to the bed, sleeping but keeping her stoic expression. _Oh, that's right, I fainted. Maybe it was from fatigue? Everyone must have been too worried._ Trying to sit up and get out of the bed, she finds that something heavy is anchoring her in place. Looking at her lower half, she sees both Yuki and Yukari laying over the sheets, pinning her on the bed. _Those two never learn_ ,she thinks, a subtle smile forming in her face. She gently puts her right hand in Yuki's head, caressing her black hair. Yuki fidgets a little in her place, a smile forming in her face. As if she wasn't sleeping, Yukari pouts, grabbing Miho's left hand and placing it on her own head, before she too starts smiling and murmuring incomprehensible things. _Of course Yukari wouldn't want to be left out,_ Miho giggles silently at her best friends behavior. This continues for about five minutes, the silence that hangs in the air actually being really nice, enabling Miho to short out her thoughts. Suddenly the door gets kicked open, by a certain blond girl with light purple eyes.

"Rise and shine everyone, time for breakfast!", Odysseus yells. Yuki and Yukari jump from the sudden yell like spooked cats, immediately hugging Miho and almost chocking her. Maho instantly stands up and turns to face the owner of this loud voice. "Good morning everyone!", she says cheerfully, carrying a tray which has food. "Miho has woken up?", she asks, noticing the flailing arms beneath the bodies of Yuki and Yukari. Both girls get up from Miho, who gasps for some fresh air. Maho is glaring at both girls with a serious expression, who avoid her gaze and look at the side while smiling awkwardly. "Anyway, here is the food, I'm gonna call the others." She hands Maho the tray with the food and starts running to find the others, with voices yelling at her not to run in the hallways.

"This girl, I wonder if she was behaving like that when she was at St. Gloriana. ", Maho murmurs, wondering how she got accepted but then remembering she faked her transfer. Handing the tray to Miho, to indirectly make her stay in bed, she grabs the plastic chair that fell from her sudden movement and sets it next to the bed, before sitting down. "Good morning Miho, how was your sleep?", she asks, a subtle smile on her face. By now, Yuki and Yukari have also settled down, sitting at the edge of Miho's bed.

Thinking that it's better not to reveal the strange dream she had, she puts a smile on her face before speaking. "Fine, but how did I get here? The last thing I remember was listening to Odysseus's story and then everything becomes fuzzy."

"You...you collapsed after hearing the Director saying that he had information concerning our mother.", Maho responds reluctantly. Miho's smile slowly gets replaced by a sad expression.

"Oh, yeah...now I remember...sorry if I made you worry", she says, a sad smile on her face.

"Don't worry miss Nishizumi, I'm sure your mother is okay!", Yukari says cheerfully.

"Yeah, she is probably looking for you too!", Yuki pipes in, not wanting to be outdone.

"Hey, don't try to steal miss Nishizumi from me!", Yukari raises her voice, glaring at the black haired girl.

"Same to you fluffball!", Yuki says back, also glaring at Yukari. Both Nishizumi sisters sweatdrop at the death glares that are exchanged between the girls.

"Seems that both of them swing the other way", a sleepy voice says, causing both girls to instantly get red from embarrassment. In the door stand the rest of the Anglerfish team.

"Miho, you finally woke up! We were really worried you know!", Saori scolds Miho lightly. Hana just smiles brightly at her friend, glad that she has finally awakened. Behind them stands Reiji and Tyler. "Good morning commander Nishizumi", Reiji says, even making a short bow.

"Morning", Tyler says simply, lifting his left hand as a form of greeting.

"Where is Annabelle?", Miho asks, noticing that the red-haired girl is not with her teammates.

"They should be here at any moment", Reiji says, looking at his wristwatch.

"Let me go to sleep!", a voice is heard yelling and soon enough, Odysseus can be seen physically dragging Annabelle from her feet inside Miho's room.

"Come on you sloth, you need to see how your friend is doing!", Odysseus says between her breaths, trying to drag Annabelle who is clinging to any surface she finds.

"No, I want to go to sleep!", Annabelle yells. Everyone is dumbfounded at Annabelle's childish behavior, except for Tyler, Reiji and surprisingly Mako, who has the "I know the feeling" expression.

"Shut up and just stand up you big baby", Odysseus says, lifting Annabelle and placing her in front of Miho.

"How have you been Miho? You seem okay.", she says in a voice like she is about to die. Turning to face Odysseus she asks in an even more tired voice, "Can I go to sleep now?" Odysseus slaps Annabelle's head lightly in response, earning a cute pouty face from her. "You are a bully Odysseus", she whines softly.

"Yeah, tell me something I don't know already.",she says nonchalantly. "Oh, that's right, almost forgot about it!", Odysseus says loudly, but more to herself, before exiting the room and coming back with a small crate. "Actually, the snakes got some things from your home".

"From home?", Miho asks with a surprised tone.

"Yes. The information they uncovered about our mother, they found it on our home", Maho says softly to her sister.

Placing the crate down and opening it, she starts pulling different objects from inside. A game console, some pictures, a boko doll, a Panzerfaust and one of Vin's explosives.

"God dammit Vin, you want to blow us up?", Odysseus murmurs as she grabs the explosive and hurls it through the open window.

"You damn lunatic, do you want to kill people so badly?!", Tyler yells, seeing the explosive going through the window and down the building. A small explosion is heard, people shouting and running all over the place. Everyone looks at Odysseus who has a blank expression.

"I blame Vin, he put it in there", she says, checking the crate to see if there is anything else inside but finding it empty.

"Hey girls, what are you all doing here?", a voice is heard from the door. Turning to see who talked, Luminous stands in the door, looking at Odysseus who has placed everything the crate had in front of it.

"Hey Luminous, we are here to check on Miho", Tyler responds.

"Do you know this girl?", Maho asks her sister quietly, in which Miho moves her head negatively.

"Something happened to her?", the platinum haired woman asks in a curious tone.

"Just fainted due to stress and fatigue", Odysseus answers, putting everything she has pulled out of the crate back inside and leaving it next to the door.

"Well, good to see she is back up and running. By the way, my name's Luminous, I'm member of the Black Mambas. And you have been asked to come to conference room 2C. The rest of the commanders are waiting there.",she reports and walks away.

"Seems the meeting is about to begin. We better get going". Miho gets off the bed, before noticing that she is in her pajamas. "Umm, who changed my clothes?", she says slowly, eyeing everyone to see their reactions.

"So...does anyone know where the conference room is?", Tyler quickly says, wanting to change the subject. Saori instantly grabs his left hand and starts dragging him out of the room.

"I'll show you!", she says, before continuing speaking about relationships and boys, Tyler already having a face filled with despair.

"She is so obvious...", Mako says bluntly, exiting the room with Hana who is giggling in amusement.

"We'll be waiting for you in the conference room!", Yukari says, before exiting the room and following the others.

"Come on sleepyhead, we have a conference to attend!". Odysseus lifts Annabelle with both of her arms and starts running to the conference room, Annabelle having a neutral expression as if this is normal for her.

"This girl", Reiji sighs loudly, walking after the blond commander.

"Well, have fun you two. Talk to you later Miho.", Yuki says, closing the door as she exits. Silence fills the room as the two sisters stare each other.

"So...where you the one that changed my clothes?", Miho asks slowly, having sat at the bed, across her sister.

"Yes", Maho answers back with a neutral expression.

"Thank goodness, it would be pretty embarrassing if the girls saw me in my underwear.", Miho blushes at the thought of her friends seeing her in her underwear.

"Indeed. Though I have to ask, since when did you start wearing such intimate ones? Is there something or someone you are keeping secret from your big sister?", she teases her younger sister, giggling a little at Miho's reaction. Miho's face is as red as Annabelle's hair.

"Wh-wh-what d-do you mean i-intimate?! And I'm not hiding anything f-from you!", Miho stutters, unable to keep her embarrassment under control.

"Sorry, but I felt like teasing you", she says with an apologetic smile. "Better go and change or we will be late".

"Ah, yes!" She grabs her uniform and rushes into the bathroom to change.

"Though I have to say, black suits you well."

"Sister!", Miho cries out, earning another giggle from her older sister.

* * *

 **A/N:** **And there goes our little flashback of the past. Lots of unanswered questions once again, like, who were these girls that Miho saw? And what about Sakura? Only time will tell. Also, a small update, I might actually be in radio silence for a bit, having exams in university is really hard. Especially for the profession I have chosen. Anyway,** **as always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**


	13. Chapter 13: The Insider

**A/N:The chapter will be rewritten,as part of the rewriting project**

* * *

 **The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 13: The Insider**

* * *

After changing into her uniform, Miho, along with Maho, made their way towards conference room 2C. There were a lot of people in the hallways and stairways, walking quickly towards different directions, a sign that something important must be going on.

"There're lots of people here", Maho says to Miho, seeing the large volume of uniformed women armed with different kinds of weapons going up and down the fairly wide hallway they were in.

"Seems like something big is happening. Normally there isn't such volume of personnel moving. Probably another big operation.", Miho responds back.

"But some of the soldiers look younger than you.", Maho says, having spotted some girls that were at most 17 years old.

"Blackout's recruiting policy is rather simple ; you have the skills, you are hired." Pausing and stopping at a rather narrow part of the hallway to let a squad of five soldiers to pass, she continues as she and Maho resume to walk towards their destination. " That's how I and the girls got hired here. Being members of a Shenshadou team and having won the National Tournament were a good enough reason. Factor in what happened in the village with the rogue JSDF soldiers and who wouldn't hire us." Passing the front entrance of the Dormitory, they exit to the main courtyard that is connected with all the buildings. It actually resembled a park, essentially being a grassy field with paths laid with bricks, benches where you could sit and relax, lampposts to provide light in the night and even a small fountain.

"But, couldn't you have done something else? Surely you didn't have to become mercenaries", Maho says, looking around the courtyard while following Miho.

"I mean no offense but...you weren't here Maho. Or anyone else for that matter. We were low on food, water and the tank was running on fumes." Glancing over her left shoulder to Maho, in a way that only half her face is seen, she continues, "We just didn't have any other choice. It was really difficult at first, especially when you had to kill someone else. But after a time we got used to it. This actually still scares me, at how easily we can extinguish a life and not even feel any regret." Stopping and looking at one of the cherry trees that inhabit the courtyard, a sad smile forms upon her face. "We all have lost so much. Yet we keep moving forward like nothing has changed. I have spilled so much blood and ended so many lives, yet here I am, like nothing's happened.", Her sad smile slowly changes into a saddened expression,lots of different feelings flooding her heart. Sensing this, Maho goes behind her sister and puts her hands around her abdomen, pulling her closer to her body in a hug.

"I'm sure that's not the case Miho. Instead of thinking how many lives you have ended, think how many lives you have saved.", Maho says in with a soft voice. "And I am sorry...for...not being by your side when you needed me". Maho is filled with regret for not being able to help her younger sister like a proper older sister should do. Now is Miho's turn to help her older sister, sensing that she is sad, even though Maho keeps her stoic expression, albeit with a faint smile. Moving her head from left to right, she looks back to her sister with a bright smile. "I'm sure that you also had to make some tough decisions. I'm just glad that you are now with me sister."

"Me too Miho", Maho responds back, before letting her sister and continuing to walk towards the administrating building that housed the conference rooms.

Entering the administrating building, it looked like any other building in Blackout. The walls were painted the same dull olive green every single building in the base had as a stock color. Though if she was to be honest, the girls dormitory was a little more flashier, with some parts of the building being painted in different colors, such as teal, pink, cyan and other bright colors. Of course those were paid and painted by the soldiers themselves, but it was a nice addition. As they passed by doors, Maho was throwing glances inside the rooms whenever there was an opportunity, mainly when someone forgot the door open. Inside these rooms were offices with files upon files filled with documents. People were going in and out of these offices with various kinds of papers. "This is the logistics department. They deal mainly with the allocation of supplies to all active personnel of Blackout, resupplying any spent equipment and also handle the fixing and servicing of any vehicle that is present.", Miho tells her sister, having noticed her glancing inside the offices as they pass by.

"It seems they are rather busy", Maho says, watching a man carry a box full of documents.

"Normally they aren't so busy. This just reinforces the point that there is going to be a big operation soon."

Reaching the staircase at the end of the building, they go up to the second floor, where the conference rooms are. Despite being quite wide, they had to squeeze through some squads of soldiers to go to the second floor. Reaching it, there was another wide hallway with big wooden double doors on its sides. They had carved coats of arms on them, representing the elite squads that are serving in Blackout. The first doors that read 'Conference Room 2A', had a winged figure that held a spear in its hand and under it the name 'Angels of Judgement'. They were the best paratroopers Blackout had, able to take down a whole base behind enemy lines in a blink of the eye. The doors across it that read 'Conference Room 2D', had a lightning hitting a sphere that was shattered at the impact point and under it the name 'Lightbringers'. They were a squad known for their fast-paced tactics, giving the enemy no time to respond on their movements, effectively making them a very good breakthrough unit, using speed instead of brute force to shatter enemy lines. The doors a bit further in the hallway that read 'Conference Room 2B', had a snake that was coiled and ready to attack. Under it was the name 'Black Mambas', one of the best special operations squad Blackout had. And at the end of the hallway were the doors that read 'Conference Room 2C'. They had a wolf carved on them, but the difference was that the wolf was painted black. Under it was the name 'Black Wolves' written in calligraphic letters.

In front of the door were positioned two soldiers, their firearms loaded, with safeties on of course, their barrels aiming at the floor. Recognizing Miho, they quickly salute and open the door, so that the two commanders can enter the conference room. "Do the tank commanders have a higher rank from the normal soldiers?", Maho asks, seeing the soldiers saluting her sister once more.

"No. In Blackout, ranks don't matter outside of your squad. It's one of Blackout's policies, in order to have every squad on the same level. The only difference is on your pay and what jobs you are assigned. And if your rank is high enough, receive emergency jobs."

"Then why did they saluted you?"

"It's because me and the girls have a certain reputation. I will tell you more after the negotiations.", Miho answers back.

Saying nothing but nodding, Maho puts her curiosity aside for now. Scanning the very big and painted white room, she spots the rest of the commanders, along with the Anglerfish and Antelope team, siting in big leather chairs around a big wooden conference table made from Mahogany wood. The girls converse quietly between them, with Reiji and Tyler conversing on how the negotiations will go. Spotting Maho coming towards her, Erika instantly gets up to salute her commander, with Maho waving her hand to sit down. Miho sits between Mako and Yukari, with Mako snoozing on the table. A suited man enters the room and sits at the head of the table, a uniformed woman standing on his right.

He looked to be on his mid 30s, had slick black hair and black eyes and wore glasses. His suit was colored blue with a red necktie. He clears his throat a bit, getting the attention of everyone inside the room.

"I'd like to thank you for accepting our invitation and coming here today. My name is Katsunosuke Murata and I'll be the one negotiating with you in place of the Director. Also, let me express my most sincere apologies for your losses. Rest assured that Blackout will be held responsible for them, should the need arise."

"Wow, way to ruin the atmosphere Murata", Odysseus says with a grumpy expression.

"Miss Papaioannou, may I remind you that you are here to observe the negotiations, not to comment on them. And I am your superior, so I can have you suspended from all Blackout operations or even fired. And if you don't comply, I can and will have the guards restrain you with force.", Murata says with a serious voice and a tone that speaks authority.

Losing her trademark smile and taking a more mature composure, Odysseus speaks softly, "And should you do this, it will take 20% of Blackout's personnel before you can even touch me. I'm a trained assassin after all", which causes everyone in the room except for Murata to shiver in fear, remembering what she did in the R.I.J.A. leader.

"Will have to see about that. Threats aside, may I know your names?", he gestures to the guest commanders. Standing up, Darjeeling clears her throat a bit before speaking. "My name is Darjeeling. I'm the overall commander of St. Gloriana's Shenshadou team and overall commander of the school ship itself. This is Assam, my gunner and this is Orange Pekoe, my loader.", Darjeeling gestures on her left and right respectively. "It's a pleasure making your acquaintance Mr. Katsunosuke." Making a short bow, she sits down, continuing seeping some tea she had poured herself before the meeting.

"I'm Kay from Saunders Girls High School. This cutie here is Naomi, gunner of one of our Sherman Fireflies.", Kay says cheerfully.

"I am Anchovy, Duce of pasta and wine, overall commander of Anzio Girls High School!", Anchovy exclaims grandly. "And she is Carpaccio, best loader our school has!"

"I-I don't know about that last remark Duce", the blonde girl smiles awkwardly.

"I am Katyusha, overall commander of Pravda Girls High School. This is Nonna and this is Klara, my two vice-commanders", Katyusha exclaims from the top of Nonna's shoulders.

"My name is Nishizumi Maho, commander of Kuromorimine's Shenshadou team.", Maho stands up and bows, before sitting down.

"My name is Itsumi Erika, vice-commander of Kuromorimine's team.", Erika says, mimicking Maho and standing up to bow, before sitting down.

"Now that we have made acquaintances with each other, lets begin the negotiations", Murata says, a subtle grin on his face that passes unnoticed to everyone.

* * *

 **At the same time**

 **Location Unknown**

 **Underground Lab S-18**

 **Fifth level**

Three figures walked inside a narrow corridor. It had steel walls that were painted white, with a black line running along the walls. It was illuminated by bright white lights that were built on the steel ceiling that the hallway had, holding a considerable amount of ground from just falling inside and killing any unlucky person that walked there. The corridor was really long, at least a kilometer in length, but almost no one was even there to use it. The three figures looked around at the corridor, but there was nothing except that black line that kept following them however far they walked. "Are you sure this is the right place?", a tall figure spoke. She had short black hair and black eyes. She was wearing a single eyeglass and had a serious expression on her face.

"The orders said to come to the fifth level at laboratory 23. And our clearance is only until that level, so we just went as down as we could", another girl answered. She had dark brown hair tied in a medium ponytail and dark brown eyes.

"At worst we end up in the cafeteria and stop to eat something. I don't think we will have any problems if we are a bit late.", the third girl told the other two, having just finished her bag of dried sweet potatoes. She had redish brown eyes and hair, tied in long twin tails.

"Wouldn't be better president if you stopped eating so many bags of dried sweet potatoes?", the girl with the single eyeglass told the shortest of the three with a frown.

"Momo-chan is right president, you should eat more healthy", the brunette girl said with a smile.

"Don't call me that, Yuzu!", Momo said.

Reaching the end of the corridor, there was only a futuristic-looking steel door, with a panel that had a screen on top of it, built in the wall next to the door. The shortest of the girls put her hand in the screen. A female robotic voice is heard. "Scanning initialized, please wait." A green neon line can be seen going from the top of the screen to the bottom and vice versa, scanning the handprint of the girl. "Scanning complete. Identification process initialized. Match found. Welcome, Anzu Kadotani." The door suddenly made a hissing sound and started revolving around its center for about 90 degrees, before stopping and split in half, with each half moving up and down respectively. Opening completely, the girls find an old man, around his 70s in front of the door. He had black eyes, grey hair, wore dark grey pants and a red and blue sweater. He also wore a whit labcoat.

"Ah, good morning girls.", he said with his raspy voice.

"Dr. Azarin", Anzu said with an emotionless tone in her voice.

"I see you still hate me, but then again, you have every right to do so. By the way, I have the intel you requested.", Azarin presents a small USB stick and hands it to the girls. "Better start making your moves, or your fellow students might not make it. Make sure that Mannheim's madness ends once and for all". Putting his hands on his lab coat's pockets, he retrieves a micro SD card and hands it on Anzu. "This has information about Sakura. I'd advise you to view it when no one else is near.", he whispers in Anzu's right ear, before making his way towards the elevator. Anzu stood in front of the door, looking at the SD card that was on her right hand's open palm. Pocketing the card, she entered the room that was in front of her. It was a normal observation room, with computers everywhere. It had a row of glass panes in one of its side. A lone scientist was looking from behind them, writing notes on a clipboard he was holding. He was looking at an adjacent room that was lower. It was quite small and had two capsules that resembled teleportation pads. Near the glass pane was a screen that showed things like blood pressure, heartbeats per minute and other medical stuff. Approaching the figure, he stops taking measurements from the screen and turns his body to face the three girls that just entered. "Ah, you finally came. How was the operation?", he asks with German accented Japanese.

"All of the remaining JSDF units have been eliminated. Some were taken captives, but others managed to escape. As of now, we control the Northern parts of Japan.", Anzu answered, her voice containing no emotion whatsoever.

"Wunderbar, with this we can finally have a steady income of subjects for my experiments! Good job! Now, we can begin the final phase of my masterplan! I need you to capture Subject 23, she is the key for the activation of Serum Black". At this moment, a tall man came in the observation room. He had grey eyes and hair, and looked to be at least in his early 50s. He also wore a military uniform, but wasn't from any known militaries that Anzu knew. He must be either from Europe or America.

"Ah, Major, to what do I own this visit?", the man said.

"The Cerberus tanks are finally done Mannheim. Now, about our deal.", the tall man said with a serious expression.

"Of course Major. You mean that girl with blonde hair from your country?", Mannheim inquired.

"Yes. Her name is Elpida Papaioannou, she is the one that got injected with Serum White.", the Major responded.

"That is interesting. If the users of the Serums were to activate their powers at the same space, it would lead to some interesting things.", Mannheim said to himself, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Has she ever activated her powers?"

"Yes and 20 soldiers paid the price for it. I barely escaped with my life. She summoned a thing that looked like a Grimm Reaper."

"I see. I don't know what you want with that girl, but since you provided us with a lot of resources we will capture her.". Turning his attention to the girls once more, he gives them their orders, before continuing his conversation with the Major.

Exiting the room, the door behind them closes and locks itself with a hissing sound, silence filling the narrow corridor, only the footsteps of the girls echoing as they walk towards the elevator."I still can't believe that magic exists. It is scientifically impossible for things to just appear out of nowhere, there must be an explanation.", Momo said, thinking about what she just heard.

"You know Momo, magic is just another fancy word to describe things that we do not understand.", Anzu told her with her usual voice, having opened another bag of dried sweet potatoes.

"The president is right Momo-chan, there is always an explanation.", Yuzu told her friend with a smile.

"Don't call me Momo-chan!", she yelled, her voice echoing in the narrow corridor. Reaching the elevator, all three girls got in and Anzu slid an ID card through an electronic lock and after bliping once, she pressed the ground floor button and the elevator started moving upwards. "President, what will we do about the rest of Ooarai's girls? We don't have a lot of time before Mannheim starts using them for his sick experiments. And I heard that the Shenshadou team is at the top of the list.", Momo spoke with a disgusted tone.

"Yeah, I heard the Bunny team is first to go. President, we need to inform Miho and that girl they were talking about. We must tell them everything...and hope they come to save our friends.", Yuzu spoke in a sad tone.

"Don't worry, I have a plan. We will isolate Miho's tank in the nearby forest and we will give her every information we have. And I'm sure she will come if her friends are in danger.", Anzu chew another dried sweet potato, eating her third bag of this delicious snack for today. Reaching the ground floor, the doors of the elevator open and the girls exit and start walking towards the garage depot. Everywhere they look there are soldiers in white uniforms that have red lines all over them and wear futuristic helmets. Reaching the garage depot, they go straight for their tank, before one of the soldiers stops Anzu.

"Awaiting orders ma'am.", the soldier says in a very synthesized voice.

"Are the Phantom and Angel units ready?", Anzu asked in a lazy tone.

"Affirmative. And we have additional units in the form of Cerberus Guerilla tanks. The Titan Heavy Assault tank is still being prepared."

"Make sure everyone is ready, we leave in an hour.", Anzu orders, turning her back towards the soldier and making her way towards her tank. The soldier salutes Anzu and makes his way towards the crew that still prepares the Titan.

Entering the tank, Anzu closes the commander's hatch, cutting any external sound from entering the crew cabin. Pulling out the SD card from one of her pockets, she inserts it inside a small tablet the tank has for when she gets bored. The tablet boots and starts projecting a document on the screen. Both Momo and Yuzu are silent, their eyes glued at what they are reading. "President...you never told us that...", Yuzu trails off, not finishing her sentence, a hand covering her open mouth. In the tablet's screen the document reads:

 _The following you are about to read are to never be mentioned_ _outside Laboratory S-18, unless heavily censored and granted **Blacklisted** status. _

Document status: **_Confidential_**

 _Japanese Self Defense Force, Black Lotus branch, department of Genetics engineering and Paranormal Phenomena_

 _Subject 22:_ _Kadotani Sakura_

 _Age: 13_

 _Codename_ : _Winter_

Archive _log: Subject's acquisition_

As Anzu kept reading what the document had, she started feeling even more hostility towards Mannheim.

"So that's the reason why my sister went missing. I'll make sure Mannheim gets what he deserves. And anyone that helped in this project. They will answer for their actions", Anzu whispered, her voice seething with hate and anger.

Outside the tank, the forces had assembled, with tanks, APCs and artillery vehicles ready to move out, helicopters and jets already moving towards their target, Blackout's main base.

* * *

 **A/N: Normally, I would take some more chapters before this one, but let's be honest, my "idle" scenes are really bad. So let's have another battle where people die. Someone has to fill the empty graves I dug. Anyway, a** **s always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**


	14. Chapter 14: A Fateful Encounter

**A/N:The chapter will be rewritten,as part of the rewriting project**

* * *

 **The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 14** **: A Fateful Encounter**

* * *

 **Underground Lab S-18**

 **Third Level**

 **Central Operations Room**

 **26th of May, 2 Y.A.**

Inside a white room are a series of tables with computers and monitors set on them, the characteristic sound of keys being pressed on a keyboard echoing in the room, as people furiously typed lines of code. There was a figure that walked in each monitor and watched the progress of the people, indicating to them mistakes that they might have made. As he is walking, a transmission is heard through his futuristic looking helmet. _"Sir, we have prepared Odin_ , _it is ready to fire at your command"_ , a heavily synthesized voice is heard.

"Good, be on standby for now, we will wait for the Blackout forces to converge on grid point Delta. Have the jet squadrons made their way on their base?". Of note, his voice isn't synthesized, but sounds normal.

 _"Yes sir, they are maintaining high altitude to avoid detection. Also, the helicopter squadron is on standby about 2km away from the base. The quadcopter units seem to be working as intended."_

"Good. The moment the Blackout forces are hit, have the Jets bombard the base and let the angel and phantom units to clear the place. The administrative building is out of bounds, the HVTs are in there with our spy."

 _"Understood Overseer. For the glory of the Institute!"_ , the man with the heavily synthesized voice exclaims, before terminating the transmission. Looking at a tablet screen, the Overseer presses a button that has a white microphone painted on it. "To all ground units, the moment the Blackout forces are dealt with, you are to proceed to their base and exterminate any opposition,but you are not to harm the HVTs. Glory to the Institute!"

 _"Glory to the Institute!",_ a chorus of voices can be heard exclaiming. Pressing the red button to stop the broadcast, he turns his attention to one of the screens that are in the room.

Looking at the live feed from a UAV, the moment he sees the Blackout forces entering grid point Delta, he says, "Fire Odin."

* * *

 **Above Grid Point Delta**

 **Altitude: 160.000 (one hundred and sixty thousand) m**

 **Low-Orbit Weapons Platform "Odin"**

A huge satellite can be seen orbiting above Japan, more specifically grid point Delta. It had the shape of a cylinder. On the body of the satellite was printed the logo of JAXA. It also had a circular solar panel that extended for about 20 meters from the satellite, providing it with the necessary power. At the side that looked towards the stars was an ion thruster that was used to calibrate the satellite's orbit now and then. At its body perimeter were many smaller thrusters that were used to fine tune the weapon's aim. At the side of the body that faced the Earth, there were multiple tungsten rods of at least 5 meters long and 0.3 meters wide. Odin was fully automated, needing only the target's coordinates and speed, doing any calculations with its own computational power, from the experimental computers that were installed in it. Suddenly, its thrusters started firing, changing where the rods were facing. Aiming directly at the Blackout forces, a short _puff_ is heard as one of the rods starts to gently move out of its position inside the satellite. After reaching about 20 meters away from the satellite, its rocket engine fires up, pushing the tungsten rod down to Earth at an alarming speed, gravity also helping it achieve speeds that are easily over 10 Mach.

* * *

 **Grid Point Delta**

A force of over 40 vehicles is moving through the grasslands, crushing the small blades of grass under their treads and tires. The forces were consisted of multiple AFVs, IFVs and APCs. There were also jeeps and normal transport trucks that were filled with soldiers. They were traveling in a box formation, with the AFVs and IFVs on the front lines, followed by the APCs and the transport trucks. Arriving at the designated point, the vehicles came to a stop, their engines still on in case they needed to escape or pursuit an enemy. Opening the commander's hatch in one of the IFVs, the commander of that vehicle grabs the radio to speak. "HQ, this is Alpha actual, we have a situation, how copy?"

 _"We copy you Alpha actual, what's your status?"_

"We are at the designated point, but there are no enemies on sight. Are you sure Murata gave you the right coordinates?", the commander asks in an uneasy tone, not liking the turn of events.

 _"Yes Alpha actual, the coordinates have been checked and are pointing at the location you are currently."_

"OK HQ, we will remain here until further noti-Hm?" Hearing a rather weak whistling that gets louder by the second, the commander looks up in the sky and the last thing he sees is a flaming rod descending from the sky at incredible speed. The tungsten rod collides at the middle of the Blackout formation, lodging itself deep within the ground. Immediately, the rod's kinetic energy is transfered into the ground, which cracks and gets thrown along with the Blackout forces at a height of at least 10 meters and at distances of more than 40 meters. The powerful shockwave shakes the ground, pushing dust everywhere. After the dust settles down, a crater which is 20 meters in diameter and 10 meters in depth, can be seen on the point where the rod crashed. Moreover, the ground around the crater is cracked for another 30 meters and littered with twisted metal wrecks, torn bodies that are missing limbs at best and pools of blood forming around anything that is fleshy. One of the soldiers crawls out of his flipped transport truck, which was at the edge of the shockwave, the only one to survive from the whole force. Getting up, he surveys the carnage that has unfolded right in front of him. Grabbing a rifle from inside the transport truck, he makes his way to one of the less damaged AFVs, which is only missing a couple of wheels, has caved in on its roof somewhat and its engine is smoking.

Opening the back door of the AFV, he scans the inside with his, for now, rifle. There are at least five bodies, horribly mangled, with broken arms and legs and twisted in a very unnatural way. Looking a bit further, he spots the radio, somehow still in one piece. Getting close and grabbing it, he tunes it a bit before speaking with a very impatient tone, "HQ, do you copy?"

 _"This is HQ, identify yourself."_

"I-I'm private Sojiro Miyazaki, 3rd infantry division, squad Alpha. We...we were hit by an unknown weapon, pr-probably a WMD. It...it just fell from the sky and threw us everywhere, it created a 20-meter crater!", he starts to yell as panic starts overtaking him.

 _"We will have a UAV over the area in about 30 seconds, you are advised to exhilarate from the area as soon as possible."_

The soldier would have responded, if he wasn't lying on the ground with a slit throat. A soldier with a white uniform that has red lines all over it, stands in front of the now dead man and the radio, a knife in his hand with a bloodied blade. Slashing the radio, he seathes his military knife and proceeds out of the vehicle."This is Angel unit 05. All enemies eliminated, the ground forces can move out.", he says in a heavily synthesized voice, under his helmet.

 _"Copy unit 05, you are clear to return back to base."_

"Aknowledged Overseer, returning to base." His helmet is the same futuristic helmet that the normal soldiers use, but in the areas where the eyes should have been, there are blue lights instead of orange. On the back section of his uniform is a metal section attached, that has two thrusters on its bottom. Two metal wings deploy themselves from the sides of the metal section and the thrusters fire up, lifting him in the air, before starting to head to the secret laboratory base.

As he flies back to base, he can see the main force moving out, picking up dust clouds as the tanks and transports race towards their objective.

* * *

 **Blackout Main Base**

 **Administrative Building**

 **Conference Room 2C**

 **5 minutes before Odin fires**

The negotiations between Blackout and the commanders of the school ships had been going for two hours, each side trying to gain the best possible results for them.

"Miporin, do you know why they still keep talking? Two hours have passed and they are still negotiating. I'm actually starting to get bored, we just sit here and listen.", Saori whispers to Miho, leaning in front of Yukari to do so.

"I hope we can have a break to eat lunch at least. I'm starting to feel hungry.", Hana whispers, sitting next to Saori.

"You just ate two bowls of rice three hours ago, how are you getting hungry again?", Saori whispered incredulously.

"Miss Nishizumi, are you okay?", Yukari asks, seeing Miho having a thoughtful gaze on her eyes, looking at the closed door from where they had entered the room.

"Eh? Ah, yeah, I'm fine Yukari, I was just thinking about a dream I had this morning", she says, forcing a smile on her face.

"If you say so Miss Nishizumi", Yukari whispers reluctantly, eyeing Miho for any signs that she is lying. Having snapped out of her thoughts, she quickly glanced around the room to see what the others were doing. Mako was sleeping, having buried her face on her arms on top of the conference table. Hana was conversing quietly with Saori and Yukari was thinking about tanks. Annabelle, like Mako, is sleeping, Reiji and Tyler are actually paying attention at the negotiations and Odysseus...looks quite serious for some reason. It must have been the first time Miho had seen Odysseus with such a serious expression. Maybe she was focusing on the negotiations, though it seemed like she was focusing on Murata and the uniformed woman that was on his right.

The school commanders were participating on the negotiations, that weren't going too good. "I believe that what you are offering is simply not enough", Darjeeling says with a calm voice.

"I can assure you that what we are offering is more than that should be offered. In your position I would be glad that such an offer was made to me.", Murata responds with professionalism back at Darjeeling.

"Commander, this going nowhere. I think we should leave.", Erika whispers to Maho, who simply nods in response. Pushing the chair a bit backwards, she says, "Since we can't reach an agreement, Kuromorimine will be withdrawing from the negotiations."

"Are you sure about this, you might regret it later. ", he says in an emotionless tone.

"Whatever obstacle we may face, we will keep pushing forwards. That is the essence of Kuromorimine". Turning her back to Murata, she starts walking towards the double doors to exit the conference room, followed by Erika. Opening the doors, she finds two uniformed soldiers with futuristic looking helmets, aiming their weapons at her. Behind them lay two Blackout soldiers, the ones that had saluted Miho earlier. Their throats are slit, with blood pouring to their vests and guns. Her eyes widen, but before she can even think to move, she feels something pushing her to her left, losing her balance and falling to the ground. Two gun reports are heard and a loud _thud_. Sitting up and looking at were she was standing, she sees Erika on the ground, grunting from the pain she is feeling and holding her left side, blood flowing fast, painting her uniform and the carpeted floor red. "Erika!", Maho yells, rushing to Erika's side to inspect the wound. Seeing the blood that is flowing, she quickly presses the wound to stop the blood from seeping out. Everyone stands up when they hear the gunshots, except for Odysseus who leans back at her chair, putting her feet on top of the table.

"I warned you that you might regret it. Units 01and 02, just observe them for now. If they make any sudden movements, kill them." Turning to face the woman that is still standing on his right, he orders her, "Unit 05, if you would bring our guests back here."

"Aknowledged.", the woman simply says, before going towards Maho and Erika, while the other two soldiers still stand at the door, aiming their weapons at the girls that lay on the floor.

"What's the meaning of this?!", Darjeeling demands angrily, covering both Assam and Orange Pekoe by standing in front of them.

Odysseus stomps her legs on top of the wooden table hard, producing an extremely loud sound. "We shall answer your questions! Welcome to our first ever Q&A, made by none other than your friendly PMC Blackout! Reiji, if you would kindly", she gestures towards her gunner.

"They are not affiliated with Blackout.", Reiji says, having seen these uniforms in the past.

"They are from an organization named 'The Institute'. We have fought them before, when we were sent to retrieve some pretty confidential information. I always wondered why the enemy knew that we were coming. Ain't that right...Murata?", Odysseus says calmly, looking at the ceiling and fidgeting with a lock from her hair.

"Seems that you aren't as childish as you seem miss Elpida. Indeed, we are spies sent from the Institute to infiltrate Blackout. We were searching for Miss Nishizumi Miho. Let's just say that she possesses something... _special_. Even you have it", Murata says with a wide grin.

"So it's the Serum, right? Or more specifically, how to control them.", Odysseus says in a bored tone.

"How do you know about them? You aren't supposed to know any of this stuff", he says with slight hostility, his grin instantly vanishing.

"I know a lot of things that I am not supposed to know. You think that after the experiment was disbanded, I would just sit and cry in a corner somewhere? I did my own research on what this damn thing was about. Admittedly, I didn't find anything useful, but I did learn about the Serums and that they were supposed to give us some kind of powers. Though it seems I gained nothing of that sorts.", Odysseus says with a slight grin on her face. Everyone inside the room looks at her with a confused expression, trying to understand what she is talking about.

"It seems you know a lot of things you shouldn't. Unit 03, kill her."

"I think your little brainwashed friend is out of order.", she says softly.

Looking on his right, he sees the woman lying on the ground, a hole in her head and a blood pool forming around it.

"What?! How is this possible?!", he says loudly, panicking at what has happened.

"You should pay closer attention at what people hold, Murata." Having a grin that would make Joker proud, she slowly lifts her left hand, which holds a silenced pistol, aiming directly at him. "I guess old habits never die." Pulling the trigger of her Glock 42, time slows down as the 9x19mm subsonic bullet exits the silencer with a quiet _puff_ , propelling itself towards his head, striking his forehead. The uniformed soldiers that stand on the door raise their assault rifles to fire at Odysseus, who is already arching her right hand backwards, a knife on it. Throwing the knife, it strikes the man that is on the left side of the doors, piercing his carotid and causing blood to fly everywhere. A really loud gun report is heard and the last soldier's head explodes in meat, blood, brain bits, bone chunks and metal fragments from his helmet, the .60 Cal bullet passing straight through the head and lodging itself to the wall.

The school ship commanders are still processing what has happened, since everything happened really fast.

"Is everyone alright? We got your emergency signal Odysseus.", Luminous says, as she and the rest of her squad walk towards the conference room.

Seeing Erika down on the floor, with Maho still applying pressure to the wound, her hands being covered in blood, Vin immediately kneels and picks her on his arms. "Rika, you are with me, we need to get her on the infirmary ASAP!", he says quickly. Rika nods and they both start heading to the infirmary as fast as they can, Maho following them.

"So, tell me again what happened.", Luminous says to Odysseus, who is still leaning back on her chair.

"Oh you know, bad guys infiltrating and good guys kicking their asses."

"What kind of lame answer is this?"

"Basically, Murata was a spy of the guys with the weird uniforms and wanted to abduct Miho and me for some reason."

"Was it difficult to say it from the beginning? Anyway, we better inf-" Before she can finish her sentence, a loud alarm starts ringing, before the base starts shaking from explosions.

"They are bombarding us! And are these... Jets?!", Annabelle exclaims as she sees one of the Jets firing a missile on the Boys dormitory building. The explosion rips a huge hole on the building's side, chunks of concrete and steel beams flying everywhere. Missiles can be heard being fired, the SAM sites the base having been activated. Most of them miss, since the Jets are equipped with flares, but a Jet gets hit, instantly exploding in a fireball, the remaining pieces of it's metal body falling to the ground.

"Everyone listen up, we will escort you to the emergency shelter, you should be safe there!", Theodore yells as to be heard over the sound of constant explosions and missiles being fired. Facing the school commanders, he yells at them, so as to bring them back to reality, still trying to understand what's going on around them.

"Unless you want to die, you better come back to reality ladies!"

Snapping out of their frozen states, the girls start following Luminous and Theodore, with the two tank teams right behind them. As they go down the stairs, they meet up with Vin and Rika, the former holding an unconscious and bandaged Erika with a very concerned Maho on her side."Are you going to the shelter?", Vin asks quickly as everyone descends the stairs on the ground floor.

"Yeah, we also need to inform the Coordinator of Murata's treason. And I bet he won't be happy.", Luminous says. Everywhere they can see are people with guns running, while anyone who can't fight heads for the shelter. Entering a room that says 'Emergency Shelter' above its doorframe, they descent a very narrow flight of stairs that leads to a huge underground room made of concrete. There are desks everywhere, with people watching laptop screens and speaking on microphones, presumably coordinating the different squads and analyzing the different casualty reports. The Coordinator, Shimanuki Tenuo, is speaking with a man, conversing about something they see at a tablet screen. Seeing who have entered he says something to the man and sends him away, facing the girls. Vin goes immediately to the area that has been labeled as the infirmary, gently placing Erika in one of the medical beds, nurses checking her wound and connecting her to various medical equipment. Vin returns to the rest of his squad and at that moment a man with grey hair and black eyes enter the room and everyone stops what they are doing to salute him. Only the school commanders and Odysseus don't salute, the former because they don't know who that man is."At ease everyone", he says and everyone continues his job. "Tenuo, status report."

"Yes Director. About seven minutes ago, the main Blackout forces were annihilated by an unknown weapon. We got a transmission from a survivor, though he talked about something falling from the sky. We lost radio contact shortly after, he is presumed to be dead." Looking at the UAV feed, he sees a large crater and around it, the remains of the Blackout forces. "It seems like an orbital weapon. If you look carefully at the center of the crater, you can see a deformed mass of metal.", Odysseus pipes in, standing on the left of the Director and staring at the UAV feed. "I see you are as unprofessional as ever Miss Papaioannou.", the Director says, chuckling a bit at her behavior.

"Never was good with the hierarchy and anyone that has more power than me.", she says nonchalantly, like nothing is going on. "I can only imagine. Anyway, resume with the status report Tenuo."

"Yes sir. As of now, we have about 50 dead and around 200 wounded from the air bombardment. Also, we have detected helicopters and what seems to be quadcopters entering our air space and heading here. Moreover, we detected a significant ground force heading this way at a speed of 40 km/h. Thankfully, the Jets that were bombarding the base retreated, due to heavy losses from the SAM sites".

"I see. Have everyone form a defense perimeter just outside the base and have the Jets and helicopters take off, we need to stop them as soon as possible." Turning to face Odysseus, he says, "Also, you have to report what happened during the meeting. I see that one of our guests got wounded. The rest of you, go and get geared, this battle is gonna be a bloody one." Both tank teams and the spec ops team salute, before heading towards the dormitory armories to get their weapons. Odysseus debrief the Director, while all the commanders from the school carriers are near the medical bed where Erika lies, with Maho at her side, a very concerned expression on her face.

"A-are we gonna be safe down here?", a very scared Orange Pekoe says.

"I certainly hope so, or I'm gonna rip Elpida to shreds", Assam says with a grumpy face, glaring daggers at the tall blonde.

"Who is Elpida?", Katyusha asks with a confused expression, still sitting on Nonna's shoulders.

"Odysseus is Elpida", Assam says with an irritating look, pointing at the girl that speaks with the Director.

"Why do you hate her so much, Assam? Is it because she tried to modify a tank?", Kay pipes in, somehow being cheerful despite the predicament she is in.

"She just hates her childish behavior. And Elpida, or rather, Odysseus, isn't the best when it comes to arguing. She can really make you lose your temper.", Darjeeling says, seeping a cup of tea that has appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

"Darjeeling, she has even influenced badly lady Annabelle", Assam says back.

"Wait, who is this lady Annabelle? She sounds like nobility", Anchovy pipes up, wanting to participate in the conversation.

"Remember the girl with red hair and emerald green eyes? She is Annabelle Morris, a noble from England.",Darjeeling answers back.

"Wait, if she is a noble, what is she doing as a mercenary here?", Katyusha pipes in, not wanting to be left outside.

"About 20 days after we beached our school carrier, Odysseus and Annabelle left it. Odysseus had written a letter saying she wanted to go on an adventure and Annabelle had written she was going to watch after her. I guess they somehow met with the other two boys they are and then joined Blackout as mercenaries."

"Annabelle told me they met the boys about three days after leaving the carrier, though she didn't tell me how.", Assam says, having calmed down a bit.

"If I am honest, Odysseus seems like a very dangerous individual. And with her unstable mental state, I don't know how much we can trust her.", Klara says in a low voice, making sure she won't be heard by Odysseus.

"I agree with Klara on this one, she is really scary", Katyusha says, shivering when she remembers how she looked at her in the battle.

"Come on, you can't be serious. Just because she had a not-so-great past and might have done some very questionable things, doesn't mean you should fear her", Kay interjects, not appreciating how Klara speaks of her.

"But you all have seen how easily she can take a life. Both during the battle, when she killed that man who called himself General and Murata in the conference room.", Klara says back, not changing her opinion.

"Then what about the Anglerfish team?", Odysseus says, standing behind Klara. Everyone gets startled, taking a small step away from Odysseus, except for Nonna and Darjeeling.

"H-How l-long have you been standing behind me?", Klara says in a surprised tone.

"Long enough. So you know, I don't care if your opinion for me is the worst, I know I am just a little broken doll, but it really irritates me when someone does it behind my back", Odysseus says in perfect Russian, which takes by surprise both Nonna and Klara. "Anyway, I have a job to do. See you later girls.", she says before dashing out of the room and up the stairs,heading for the Armory in the Girls dormitory.

"You will have to excuse her, she is normally like that.", the man that was speaking with the Coordinator says, as he is making his way to the commanders. "I'm the Director. Sorry for what has happened to your friend, we didn't expect they would have a spy amongst our ranks."

"May I ask something Director?", Klara says nervously.

"Of course. As long as it isn't anything sensitive towards Blackout, I'll be happy to answer."

"Thank you sir. It's about Odysseus. If she is so "unprofessional", as you told her a few minutes ago, why do you keep her in Blackout? You are a PMC, so you have a hierarchy, even if it is very basic. Shouldn't her behavior be punished? And should she even fight with how her mental state is? She could go rogue at any given moment.", Klara says, her curiosity overwhelming her.

"It is her way of not collapsing mentally. I had three different psychologists surveying her and they all told me the same thing. Her mind is too broken and her only way of coping with it and not sinking into absolute insanity, is her childish behavior. If for any reason she is pushed mentally, she will become quiet and unemotional, another coping mechanism for her mental state not to deteriorate, but if she is pushed too far, she reverts into a broken state."

"What do you mean?", Klara asks hesitantly, her brain screaming not to utter these words.

"You all know her past right? Since it is a very delicate matter for her, only I know it from Blackout."

"Yes, she told us about her past yesterday."

"Good,then you won't have any problem to understand what I mean. She shows her true self, and you don't want to be on the receiving end of her lunacy. Let me put it this way. One soldier had the stupidity to flirt with one of her friends, the red haired girl and he got a bit forceful, because he got rejected. We found him with both arms and legs broken. It took three guards and a tazer to put her down. Of note, the man was a spec ops soldier. Normally we would have put her in a holding cell, but she has too much potential to do something like that. Just make sure to not anger her, because if you do manage to incur her wrath, not even Blackout can save you."

Having finished his answer, the Director goes back to the Coordinator to discuss about the defense plans. Everyone is silent and are looking at Klara, who is sweating at what might happen to her if she says anything worse for Odysseus.

* * *

 **Girls dormitory**

 **Armory, Ground floor**

The armory was full of girls, grabbing their weapons and equipment, putting bulletproof vests and heading towards the defense perimeter. The girls from both the Anglerfish team and the Antelope team were gearing up, having already put their vests on and grabbed their weapons, filling the vest pockets with magazines. "Is everyone ready?", Miho asks, glancing at her friends who have just checked their weapons.

"Yes, but are the guns really necessary? If we will be on our tank, won't the sidearms do?", Hana asks.

"It is in case we need to abandon our vehicles."

"I really miss the days when we were just highschool girls.", Saori says with a saddened expression.

"I don't. At least the days before joining St. Gloriana as a transfer student.", Annabelle says, loading her sidearm and putting the safety on.

"You mean you prefer killing people, with not knowing where your family is and if they are alive, over being with them?", Saori says, a bit dumbfounded at what Annabelle has told her.

"Yep, I have more freedom now than I ever had in my life."

"Hey girls!", Odysseus yells, nearly crashing on Annabelle, who with extreme agility moves out of the way, causing Odysseus to crash in her locker, face first.

"That is gonna leave a mark", Mako comments, as Annabelle is helping Odysseus to stand up.

"You should be more careful Odysseus, you might get hurt really bad.", Annabelle says in a concerned voice.

"Oh, how sweet. You actually care about me. You'll make me fall for you", Odysseus says with a seductive voice, making every girl that heard her to blush or even avert their eyes from them.

"Shut up, troll face, you are making everyone feel awkward", Annabelle scolds Odysseus, hitting her lightly on the head.

"Ow, you are a meanie Annabelle", Odysseus says with a pouty face, while grabbing her gear.

"Karma's a bitch, ain't she Odysseus?", Annabelle smirks at her friend.

"Whatever, I don't care. See you at the Garage depot!", Odysseus dashes out of the room, with Annabelle chasing behind her with her bulletproof vest that Odysseus forgot to wear.

"They are really great friends, aren't they?", Hana says with a bright smile.

"Mm, they care for each other a lot. Let's get going to the Garage depot too, we need to see if there is any damage to the tank.", Miho says, looking at her friends.

"Yes!", everyone responds, before exiting the armory and heading to the Garage depot.

* * *

The inside of the Garage depot was a mess with parts of the roof having caved in, crushing tanks and personnel alike. But no one had time to mourn for the dead, as tank engines started and tanks exited the half-destroyed building, heading to the defense perimeter to join their comrades. Finding their tank, the Anglerfish team quickly man it, Mako starting its engine. Standing up from the commander's seat, Miho surveys her surroundings. Spotting the Panther S passing in front of them, she waves at Odysseus who waves back, before ordering Mako to follow them. Exiting the garage, Miho looks at the surrounding buildings. They all have various degrees of damage, from some cracks to whole sections missing. Surprisingly, the administrating building was untouched, having no damage whatsoever. Exiting the front gate, there was a line of vehicles at about one hundred meters from it. There were AFVs, IFVs, some modified Type 10s, tanks that were produced by Blackout, such as the Annihilator or the Boomstick AA vehicle. The first one was a tank with really frail armor, but had a 152mm autoloading cannon, meaning it could kill anything instantly. The second was a tank chassis with an unmanned turret that had two Gatlin cannons placed on it. It was mainly used for shooting down helicopters or missiles, since it had an astonishing rate of fire. Behind the tanks were squads of soldiers taking cover, getting ready for the upcoming assault. The base was located on a plain, making it easy to organize large numbers of vehicles or even escape quickly if the need arises, but in return making the base a very easy target and giving the infantry little to no cover. There was a small forest on their right however, at a distance of about 300 meters, which could provide them ample cover. Taking place on an empty spot that was on the front line, Miho ducks inside the tank to avoid the blazing sun and enjoy some shade.

"Sure is hot today. And all these things we have to wear don't make it any easier", Saori complains.

"At least these new uniforms keep our body temperature at a steady level, so it's not that bad.", Yukari says, having opened her hatch, since the tank didn't have any ventilation and it could become really hot.

"Indeed, though it feels a bit weird, feeling your body just fine, but your head hot.", Hana says.

"At least it is better than the previous uniforms. And the new vests are really strong and flexible.", Miho says, thankful for the vests, since it saved her life.

Static comes from Miho's headset and a male voice is heard, _"To all units, the enemy has appeared on the horizon. Everyone is to hold fire until the helicopters are down. AA units, you are clear to fire the moment they enter your weapons range"_

On the horizon, five helicopters and 2 quadcopters can be seen making their way towards the base. Entering the 1 km maximum firing range, the Gatlin guns on the four Boomsticks start spooling and after a second, start spewing bullets to the airborne vehicles. Two helicopters and one quadcopter get hit, the helicopters becoming wrecks filled with bullet holes and erupting in flames, before falling to the ground. The quadcopter loses both of its right rotors, making it roll on its right and plunge into the ground, anyone inside it getting crushed. Reaching the 500m mark, the helicopters start making evasive maneuvers to avoid the fire of the Boomsticks, also firing their Rocket Pods. Rockets impact everywhere, as the line of vehicles and soldiers gets drowned in fiery domes. Two Type 10s go up in flames, an Annihilator gets ammoracked and at least 10 soldiers perish from shrapnel or the explosions themselves. The barrels of the Gatlin cannons glow red, as they try to shoot down the missiles, but the volume is too great. The soldiers scatter around, trying to avoid the explosions. The tanks just stand motionless in line, praying they will not get hit. From the quadcopter fall 10 uniformed men. Their uniforms are the standard white with red lines, but five of them have metal wings and their helmets have blue lights instead of the classic orange. The other five have six green led lights, three on each side of their helmet.

"What are these guys? They look different from the ones we saw at the conference room.", Saori says, looking at the strange enemies that are in front of them.

"Probably they are another type of enemy. Like how we have snipers, scouts and normal infantry", Mako adds.

Suddenly, the soldiers with the green led lights dissappear from view and the soldiers with the blue lights propel themselves in the air, hovering about 10 to 20 meters above ground. By now the helicopters and the quadcopter have retreated from the defensive line.

"Miss Nishizumi, did you that?! They just disappeared from plain sight!", Yukari exclaims in a surprised tone.

"Everyone, seal your hatches! Yukari, load the Napalm shells. Hana, fire about 10 meters in front of where the enemy landed.", Miho orders and the girls do as they are told.

The sound of the Gatlin cannons spooling can be heard, as the Boomsticks target the flying soldiers, who easily evade the fire, due to their small size.

Hana aims at where she was told and fires, the Napalm shell exiting the barrel of the cannon and flying through the air. Hitting the ground, the shell explodes and spreads Napalm at a five meter radius. One of the enemy soldiers that had vanished appears, covered in liquid fire. Normally, aa human would try to put out the fire, but this soldier just keeps walking, before collapsing from the damage his body has received. This disturbs the girls slightly. Ordering Saori to change frequencies to the open channel, Miho puts her left hand on her neck to speak. "To all units, the enemy has some type of advanced optical camouflage, we have designated them as Phantoms. They are the soldiers with the green lights on their helmets."

 _" Roger! "_ , voices are heard saying, but the warning came a bit too late, as the Phantoms are already killing soldiers here and there, popping into view behind the soldiers and stabbing them with blades that come out from the top of the uniforms, in the area just below the wrists.

As chaos consumes the defensive line, some of the soldiers manage to hit the airborne enemies, which fall to the ground, loud _thuds_ marking their contact with it.

The last soldier gets hit in his jet pack, the bullet entering one of the thrusters and causing it to malfuction, resulting in him spinning in endless circles, until he hits the ground, a loud splash sounding, accompanied by blood and broken limbs flying everywhere.

One of the Phantoms climbs on the Panther S and rips the cupola's hatch from its hinges. Popping out of the ripped hatch, Odysseus uses her knife and thrusts it in the man's throat, piercing his carotid. Twisting it, she slits the rest of his throat, leaving the body to fall on the engine deck.

"Odysseus, what the hell was that noise?", Tyler yells, hearing the sound of steel getting ripped.

"One of the guys that can use optical camouflage just ripped the the hatch of its hinges."

"He did what?!", both Tyler and Annabelle yell at Odysseus

"Don't worry, I killed him."

"Thats not the problem here Odysseus, he just ripped a hatch of its hinges! That are made of steel!", Annabelle screams at Odysseus.

"They might be enhanced somehow, allowing them to have superhuman strength.", Reiji thinks aloud.

"HQ, this Antelope team. The Houdini guys...eh,the Phantoms have superhuman strength, one of them just ripped our tank's hatch of its hinges.", Odysseus speaks to her radio.

 _"We copy you Antelope, we will_ _relay the information to the rest of the units"_ , a woman responds. By now, the rest of the Phantoms have been killed, but not before a lot of casualties have incurred.

"HQ, this is Leader of Epsilon Squad, the enemy forces have been eliminated, but we have suffered lots of casualties, at least 20 dead and 10 heavily wounded.", a man that is around his 30s speak to his radio.

 _"We will send medics to your position right away. Be advised that the enemy forces will be in visual range on about 5 minutes. Our Jets and helicopters need about 7 more minutes to be ready for take-off."_

"Roger that HQ, over and out". Terminating the transmission, he starts ordering people around, trying to organize the defense line, or rather what has been left of it. People run all around the place, moving the heavily wounded closer to the base, so that the medics can take care of them.

In the horizon, a force consisting of tanks, APCs, helicopters and transport trucks approach, followed by a fairly big dust cloud.

"Everyone get ready, the enemy is about to enter our firing range. You are clear to fire at will!", the leader of the Epsilon squad says in his radio to everyone at the defense line. Entering their effective firing range, every vehicle fires its cannon, the shells propelling themselves to the enemy targets. Several APCs and MBTs go up in flames, fireballs consuming them. Tracer rounds illuminate the sky as the Boomsticks try to eliminate the enemy helicopters, which swerve left and right fiercely, trying to throw off the aiming of the Gatlin cannons.

 _"To all armor elements, after the enemy fires, move forwards to confront them, we must not allow them to get near the base."_ , Tenuo says, monitoring the situation from the emergency shelter.

Stopping their advance, the enemy vehicles fire in retaliation and the defensive line goes up in explosions, several light armored vehicles getting ammoracked and exploding. The explosions also throw shrapnel and soldiers everywhere, dealing huge amounts of damage to the infantry. One HE shell lands square on the Panzer's front, the explosion rocking the tank backwards, but only managing to dent a little the 80mm steel plate it had bolted on its front. After the enemy seizes firing, every tank starts charging the enemy, that is about 500 meters from the defensive lines. The APCs start unloading uniformed soldiers, which stand next to the tanks, aiming their various weapons at the steel wall that comes closer to them with each second that passes.

Firing on the move, Miho's tank manages to land a Napalm shell in the center of an enemy squad, burning them to ashes. The other tanks also started firing, the shell exchange intensifying between the two forces as they closed the distance. Spotting a really weird tank going towards the small forested area, Miho orders Mako to follow it, and so the Panzer IV breaks from the formation and starts hunting the lone enemy tank that had entered the woods. Firing a shell, it grazes the enemy's turret, before bouncing and hitting the ground. The enemy tank rotates its turret and fires back, the shell landing some 20 meters away from its target.

* * *

The Panther S was in line with the rest of the vehicles, firing at the enemies, the shells either bouncing or missing. They weren't in the best position, with Annabelle moving the tank backwards and forwards, trying to confuse the enemies as to where the tank is going, earning a lot of bounces on the frontal plate and the gun mantle.

"Odysseus, we are sitting ducks here, why are we not moving?!", Annabelle yells, frantically pulling and pushing levers.

"Something's not right, I have this feeling that something bad is going to happen", Odysseus says in a quiet tone, very uncharacteristic of her. Suddenly, she hears a gun report that she is too familiar with. Looking over the cupola, she sees on her left three Cerberus tanks escorting a lone APC, breaking through the defensive line.

"Annabelle, follow that three tanks that just broke through our lines! Reiji, try to keep one of them intact, just disable it!", Odysseus yells with extreme ferocity.

"Something wrong Odysseus? Why are you so hostile suddenly?", Tyler remarks, seeing the sudden mood swing Odysseus had.

"These tanks are from my homeland, they are the Cerberus tanks. Which means that the bastard is here.", she says in a very dark tone, her eyes filled with intense killing intent.

"You mean the man you referred to as the 'Major'?", Reiji inquires in a calm voice, as he is zeroing in one of the Cerberus tanks.

"Yes", she says simply, having grown quiet. Firing, the shell hits the first Cerberus tank on its engine block, instantly catching fire.

"Hey Odysseus, are you going to be fine?", Annabelle asks in a soft voice.

"Yeah, don't worry", Odysseus responds back in a low voice.

Firing again, the second tank gets ammoracked, its turret going for a brief flight, before hitting the ground.

Aiming at the third tank, Reiji fires and hits with an HE shell the left tread, destroying it and forcing the tank to halt. As the Panther S passes next to the Cerberus, Odysseus jumps from her tank into the enemy's, the Panther S continuing to chase the APC.

* * *

Chasing the enemy tank between the trees, the Panzer IV fired shell after shell, either hitting the trees near the tank, or bouncing on its sides. Reaching a clearing, the enemy vehicle enters it and makes a U-turn, facing the Panzer. Miho orders Mako to stop, but before Hana can fire, a figure pops out of the commander's hatch on the enemy tank, holding a bag of dried sweet potatoes. Everyone freezes at what they are seeing. Miho immediately shoots out of the cupola, her eyes wide open. "P-President?", is the only thing that escapes her lips.

"It's been two years Miho. We don't have too much time, so I will make it brief.", Anzu says with a serious expression as her tank stops next to Miho's. "Take this tablet and read everything it has in it. You need to learn the truth behind some things." Tossing the tablet at Miho, who reflexively catches it, her tank enters the woods and dissappearing, before Miho can utter any words. Taking the tablet, she ducks inside and boots it, starting reading aloud what it has written, so the rest of the girls can hear it. And with each new sentence that is read, their eyes keep getting wider and wider.

* * *

 **A/N: Yay, a new chapter and a really long one at that. So, I know it seems rushed in some points, but I really wanted to get it out. Plus, its word count IS OVER 7000! Horrible references aside, in the next chapter, we will finally learn what are these mysterious Serums exactly and what happened to the rest of Ooarai. We will also have our first "magical" battle. Also, after the next chapter, I will probably rewrite chapters 1,2,4 and make some micro changes on the rest of the chapters. And I'm changing the title of the story, need something flashier. So, for the brave warriors that have made it until here without bleaching their eyes too much because of this story, if you want suggest a title! You will be credited for it of course. If you need any information for the ploy just PM me and if you want to suggest a title, just post it in the reviews or PM me, or send it via carrier pigeon, I accept all forms of communications. Anyway,** **a** **s always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**


	15. Chapter 15: Revelations

**A/N:The chapter will be rewritten,as part of the rewriting project**

* * *

 **The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 15: Revelations**

* * *

 _Miho, this is all I was able to summarize from what information I could find, but they should be enough for you to understand. Unless we meet under different circumstances, this brief summary will have to suffice for now. I know that what you will read below might sound incredulous and you'll obviously have lots of questions, but everything that will be mentioned is true. Keep that in mind no matter what._

 _Ether/Ether Energy: A type of non-materialistic energy that exists between realities. The whole existence of this energy is based on the multiple realities theory that was proposed about 30 years ago. It says that there is a place where multiple realities exist with an infinite amount of worlds. This seemingly infinite energy, Ether, is what keeps the realities from crashing to one another and getting destroyed in the process. Since it transcends reality itself, Ether has the property of manipulating it, on the level of space and time themselves. You can do whatever you want with it, even create impossible things. The energy was discovered about 20 years ago, from a collaborative project between the European Union, Russia, America and Japan. At first, the nations thought of using this energy as an energy source and with its seemingly infinite supply, the whole world would benefit from it, but there were two problems:_

 _-Firstly, they couldn't harness it. Although they could detect it, they weren't able to extract it, much less make it interact with our world the way they wanted it, due to its nature._

 _-Secondly, each nation wanted to weaponize Ether. They saw it as a wonder weapon that could change the balance of powers, but since the energy couldn't interact with the physical world, such fears were baseless._

 _Though after a few months of the initial discovery, they also found a way to give Ether form. They discovered that the human brain can utilize this energy, subconsciously give it form and manipulate it in any imaginable way. Miracles, supernatural phenomena, magic, all these words described the use of Ether. People born with a very specific genetic makeup, were able to use Ether to gain powers, such as fire making, telekinesis and other powers that you see in anime and manga. The nations searched for those people, since they saw them as living and breathing weapons. But their numbers were extremely low, only one every five hundred million people seem to have this specific genetic makeup. Due to these reasons, the project was abandoned and each country did its own research._

 _Japan found the Black Lotus, a branch of the JSDF that reported directly to the government. The department of Genetics Engineering and Paranormal Phenomena was a blacklisted department that was tasked with weaponizing Ether. The lead scientist of this project was a man from Germany named Dr. Mannheim and his assistant was from Russia named Dr. Azarin. Mannheim was a very talented individual. By researching the genetic makeup of people who could use Ether, he managed to create a DNA altering liquid, which was named Serum. He created many variants of it and classified them based on their color and strength. The strongest variants he ever made were known as Serum Black and Serum White. Essentially, the Serum is a DNA altering liquid, that will change your genetic makeup so that you can use Ether. The stronger the Serum, the more aggressive the alteration is, and the more possible for the alteration to fail and kill the test subject. Naturally, it would be very difficult to find willing test subjects to participate on the experiments. So, the Japanese government authorized the usage of any means to acquire results. That meant lying about the true nature of the experiment, buying orphans from orphanages and even abducting people. You, Miho, were one of the test subjects. I've attached your file at the end of this summary in case you need further proof that I'm not lying. You were injected with Serum Black, which, as mentioned above, was one of the strongest variants. All the previous subjects that had been injected with it had either died or received crippling damage. You were and still are, the only known test subject to have successfully survived the alterations of Serum Black. That gave you the ability to manipulate the Ether, giving you "magic" powers. One example is the black wolf you summon, again, check your file that I have attached at the end. As a side effect of using your powers, your hair will change color to black and your eyes to red. Though after some time, you lost the ability to invoke them on will. Mannheim suggested that they try to invoke extreme emotions to you, to see if your powers would return. I couldn't find any information on what they did, but apparently your powers went out of control. After that, your mother found out about the true nature of the experiment and using her connections, she shut it down for good. The damage had already been done though, as Mannheim had already sold the Serums at all the countries that had participated in the collaborative project._

 _After the apocalypse happened, Mannheim, with the help of some former members of the JSDF, resurrected the project. He also had other projects he was conducting. Being a Genetics Engineering department, the labs of Black Lotus offered the perfect opportunity to create the perfect soldiers, the guys with the white suits you have seen. He also managed to capture everyone from Ooarai after the school ship was beached. Despite what you may have seen, everyone is alive Miho, but our time is running short. We made a deal with Mannheim. We help him capture you and he doesn't use anyone from the school ship as a Guinea pig. It was clearly a ruse to buy time, but after so long, we may have been compromised. His location is laboratory S-18, under the city of Tokyo. Expect heavy resistance. I know these are a lot to stomach, but Miho, please, you need to come as fast as possible_.

 _-Anzu_

Having read the document, everyone inside the tank was silent. "This can't be real, these things are like they came straight out of an anime or a manga! It's impossible for something like that Ether energy or whatever to exist!", Saori blurted out, still unable to process anything of what she has heard.

"If we think logically about it, there is a slim chance for this energy to exist and to be able to interfere with reality itself. As human beings, there are a lot of things we can't understand and will brand as "magic" just so we don't feel dumb", Mako says with a calm voice, clearly understanding most of the things that the document had written.

"But having such absurd powers, how can you not name it magic or something supernatural? And for Miho to be involved as well, will she be okay?", Hana said with great concern, worried about her friend.

"I don't care if Miss Nishizumi has magical powers or was on a really shady experiment, she is still my best friend!", Yukari yells and bear hugs Miho, causing everyone to burst in laughter. "Thanks, Yukari", Miho says, patting her curly hair, which causes Yukari to blush and undo her hug. "Although I would be lying if I said that I am not shocked from what I have read, our friends are in trouble and we need to help them. We can try and understand what is written inside here at a later time." Nodding in agreement, everyone has a steeled expression, their eyes full of determination. "Mako, gets us out of the forest and back to the defense line, Yukari, if we see any infantry, load HE or Napalm shells, Hana, fire at the first target you see, Saori, contact the HQ and tell them we lost the target that we were pursuing and that we are returning at the defensive line."

Everyone inside the tank responds with a resounding "Yes!". Standing out of the cupola to have better visibility, she puts her hand on her neck. "Panzer vor!", she says and the tank starts heading towards the battlefield, hope fueling its crew, finally knowing that their friends are alive.

* * *

Landing on top of the Cerberus turret, Odysseus unholsters her pistol and opens the commander's hatch. Grabbing the commander from the neck, she forcefully drags him out of the turret and throws him off the side. Jumping inside, he shoots the loader and gunner on their heads, blood and metal bits flying everywhere. Before the driver can raise his own sidearm to fire at the intruder, alarmed by the sound of a gun discharging, his head jerks sideways by a kick, a loud *bang* being produced from the helmet striking the metal of the tank. Unseathing her knife, she plunges it deep in the man's neck, the blade splitting his spine and its tip exiting from the back of the neck. Blood flies everywhere, painting everything red inside the tank. Exiting from the driver's hatch, she jumps back to the ground and looks at her left. The tank commander is on the ground, trying desperately to unholster his sidearm, but because he is panicking, he is unable to do so. Odysseus, holding on her left hand her knife and on her right hand her sidearm, slowly walks towards the man, who upon seeing her approaching, he starts crawling away from her as fast as he can. Odysseus raises her pistol and fires at the man's legs and hits his knees, causing him to howl in pain. Reaching him, she pins him down on the ground by pressing against his chest with her right knee. Removing his helmet, she presses her pistol against his forehead. The man, looked no more than 20 years old, had brown hair and black eyes. Tears were rolling on his cheeks from the intense pain he was feeling.

"P-Please, d-don't ki-ki-kill me!", he whispered in a terrified voice, his eyes wide open and glued at the gun in front of him.

"Than you better answer my questions", Odysseus says in a dark tone that could make even the bravest of men scream like a little girl.

The man makes a tiny nod, unable to even speak from the sheer terror that grips his brain. "First question. Are these tanks called Cerberus Guerilla tanks?" The man nods slowly, still looking at the gun in front of him. "Good. Second question. Were you given these tanks or the blueprints of the tanks by someone?"

"Y-Yes, by a foreigner. He came in contact with Dr. Mannheim and offered him the blueprints of the tanks in exchange for capturing a certain individual-". His eyes widen more in realization of who is pinning him on the ground. "Y-You! Th-That individual is you!", he screams as he tries to free himself, flailing wildy.

"So...he really is here...the Major is here. Hahaha, ahahahahahaha!" Laughing like a maniac, she gazes up on the sky, eyes open wide and a grin that would scare Joker himself. The man is absolutely scared out of his wits, crying and shouting for help. "After so many years, he has finally shown himself. Finally, I'll have my revenge!"

"Hey Odysseus." Hearing someone calling her, she stops laughing and turns to face the person who said her name, only to see Annabelle punching her square in the face with such force that she instantly gets unconscious. "Why don't you take a nap?", Annabelle says, before unholstering her sidearm and shooting the man in his head.

"You know, we could have captured him and interrogate him.", Reiji says in a calm tone as he helps Annabelle pick up Odysseus and put her in the tank.

"Too dangerous. He might have been behaving differently from the other soldiers, but we don't know if he is physically enhanced."

"Fair point. Can you also tell me why you had to punch Odysseus? And why she was laughing like a maniac?", Reiji asks Annabelle, having reached the tank.

"Yeah, why was she acting so weird? It was beyond creepy", Tyler says, standing on the engine deck and lifting the unconscious Odysseus to put her inside the tank.

"You have heard her past, so you can't expect someone to go through so many horrible experiences and dont have a trauma or two.", Annabelle says while climbing the tank to enter it through the driver's hatch.

"So, our dear commander is a psychopath who could slit our throats at any given time...great", Tyler grumbles while easing Odysseus in the commander's seat with the help of Reiji.

"No, not exactly. Why do you think she acts like a child?"

"In order to not damage her already unstable mental state even more?", Reiji takes a lucky guess, sitting on his seat and starting looking through the gun optics.

"Exactly. She is always treading on thin ice and whatever this dude told her, just shattered the ice and caused her to lose her shit."

"You seem to know more for Odysseus than what you tell us.", Tyler says.

"And you'd be right Tyler, but it's not my place to tell these things to anyone. You can ask Odysseus when she wakes up. For now though, it seems we best retreat, most of our vehicles have become scrap metal.", Annabelle says in a calm voice, looking through her vision port at the line of smoking wrecks.

"Agreed, we are an easy target here in the open.", Reiji says, firing a shot at an APC that was running for the defense line, before the Panther starts heading to the defensive line, the rest of the Blackout vehicles doing the same.

* * *

Back at the defense line, anyone that had a sniper rifle was firing at the uniformed soldiers that where in the open, about 500 to 600 meters away. Luminous had set up her TLRR next to a smoking wreck, using it as cover in case the enemy had any snipers of their own. Aiming her scope, she zeroes in a soldier's head and fires, a defeaning thunderclap being heard and seconds later the soldier's head explodes in pieces, blood flying everywhere. Luminous retracts her face from the scope, as to not get burned by the heat the gun creates every time it is fired. Cycling manually the revolver-like magazine, she acquires a new target and fires, this time hitting a soldier on his chest, creating a fairly big hole on the area the bullet hit. Cycling the magazine once more, she waits for the green LED light in the scope to light up, before firing a final time. "Press R for reload", she murmurs sarcastically, pressing a small button that is just above the trigger guard on the right side of the weapon, releasing the still hot cylindrical magazine and letting it to fall to the ground. Grabbing the sniper and magazine with her gloved hands, she sits up on the ground, leaning on the wreck,while retrieving a .60 Cal bullet from one of her vest pockets and placing it in one of the three holes the magazine has. An explosion is heard in the distance as one of the retreating Blackout vehicles gets ammoracked, its turret flying in the air, crashing into another retreating vehicle and falling off it on the ground.

"Never seen that one", Vin comments when he sees the turret landing on the moving tank, leaning his head off the side of the wreck to see what the explosion was.

"Vin, don't lean your head like that, an enemy sniper might target you!", Rika says and forcefully drags Vin behind the wreck.

"Oh come on Rika, you worry too much. If there was an enemy sniper don't you think they would have fired back? Our guys are practically standing in the open and no one has a bullet hole in their heads."

"Yeah, but-"

"Both of you, that's enough! The enemy is charging on our position!", Theodore yells, seeing the enemy soldiers running towards the defense line, the armored vehicles following closely. Bullets start flying everywhere and soon enough, shells. Explosions start rocking both sides, as HE shells crash to the ground and vehicles get destroyed.

* * *

Inside the Panther S, which was about a hundred meters away from the defensive line, Tyler was loading shell after shell in the gun breach with Reiji shooting at the enemy tanks, some times missing and some times bouncing.

"First time I see you missing or bouncing so many shots", Annabelle says, watching from her vision port where the shells land. An incoming shell hits the side of the hull in such a way that despite bouncing, it dents the armor quite badly and causes the inner side of that part to spall, the shrapnel flying everywhere in the cabin. Thankfully, most of them are small enough to only cause light wounds and small grazes, but one is big enough to graze Annabelle's back and cause a fairly big and deep gash. Screaming from the sudden pain, she instinctively moves her body forward, hitting her head on the vision port. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!", she yells as she rubs her forehead. Blood flows from her back at an alarming rate, but she grits her teeth, trying to fight the immense pain she feels. "I'm getting us out of here, it's too dangerous to stay!", she yells.

"Jesus Christ, doesn't this thing have a spall liner!?", Tyler yells, checking his body for any significant injuries, before continuing to load shells on the gun breach. Reiji continues to fire, not even checking for any wounds. Checking Odysseus, he sees that no shrapnel got her, so he goes back at shooting. "Seems the shell that hit us was of a big caliber.", he responds calmly. Another shot hits the tank, this time in the gun mantle, ripping a huge chunk of steel.

"We are going to die if we stay here Annabelle!", Tyler yells in a panicked tone.

"You think I don't know that you damn idiot!?", Annabelle also yells, seeing an enemy tank aiming its armament straight for them and firing. Rotating towards its left, the tank shakes violently as the enemy's shell hits the right driving wheel and completely destroys it, but losing enough penetrating power to become unable to punch through the steel side of the hull. "We have been immobilized! Get out of here now!", she yells to the others, who exit from the gunner's hatch, dragging with them the still unconscious Odysseus. Reaching the gunner's hatch, she dives out of the tank just in time, as she feels tremendous heat enveloping her feet, followed by a burning sensation. Falling to the ground clumsily, she looks at her legs, which are singed pretty badly from the knees and down. "Guys, I-I th-think I can't walk", she says with laborious breathing, her body unable to handle the pain and damage it has received. The turret of the Panther S burns brightly under the midday sun, flames seeping out from the gunner's hatch and the ripped commander's hatch. Both Reiji and Tyler turn to face Annabelle just in time to see a Phantom standing above her, ready to strike with his blade. Tyler immediately sprints and tackles the man on the ground, but he quickly recovers, picking Tyler with one hand and throwing him on Reiji, causing both boys to crash to the ground hard. Grabbing Annabelle from the neck, he lifts her from the ground on his eye level. Annabelle tries to grab her sidearm, but it is not in its holster. The man punches Annabelle on her abdomen a couple times, causing her strength to vanish, as her body is on her limits. Looking with teary eyes at the helmet of the Phantom, she whispers, "Odysseus, goodbye." Lifting his right hand and extending the blade that's on it, he thrusts the blade forward. A crushing sound is heard as his whole right arm gets ripped off from the shoulder. Letting Annabelle to fall on the ground, he looks at the figure that attacked him. Odysseus throws his hand on the ground and thrusts her right hand inside the man's abdomen, his organs getting mushed by the sheer force. Looking at her face, the man finds his body paralyzed in fear, however impossible that is, since they are genetically engineered to not have any emotions. Odysseus's right eye glows with a bright magenta color, on her face an emotionless expression. A single tear can be seen rolling on her right cheek, reaching her jaw and falling to the ground. "No one hurts my friends", she exclaims in a low voice filled with anger and wrath. Grabbing the man's spine, she forcefully pulls it out and the man instantly falls limply on the ground, a semi-transparent white aura getting pulled from his body and into Odysseus's. Odysseus instantly falls to her knees, a terrifying burning pain grasping the left side of her face,like someone is pressing hot iron against her skin. Grunting from the pain, she puts her right hand on top of her left eye socket, which is bleeding, the fake eye having popped out. Standing up despite the bleeding, she keeps her left eyelid closed and rushes to pick up Annabelle.

"Odysseus, what the fuck was that?!", Tyler yells, having witnessed everything. Odysseus ignores him and she starts running towards the infirmary. Before Tyler can say anything else, Reiji puts his hand on his left shoulder and moving his head from left to right, he says, "She was crying Tyler." Tyler instantly shuts up, his expression transforming into a surprised one. Saying nothing more, Reiji starts running towards the base to catch up with Odysseus, followed closely by Tyler.

* * *

Back at the defense line, things were getting worse by the second, as more and more enemy soldiers were closing in. "HQ, this is Vin, where the hell is the damned air support?!", he yells, firing his SCAR-H on semi-automatic, trying to gun down as as many enemies as he can.

 _"Black Mambas, this is HQ. We can't provide air assets at you, because the airstrip was severely damaged and the enemy has deployed mobile SAM sites on the vicinity."_ , a female voice responds.

"Unless you do something, the defense line is going to collapse!"

 _"We are sorry, but we can't do anything at this moment"_ , the woman says, before terminating the transmission.

"Guys, we are on our own!", he yells at his teammates, taking cover behind the wreck to reload his weapon.

"It won't be the first time", Theodore says, firing his light machine gun at short bursts.

"Enemy Phantoms!", a Blackout soldier yells, having spotted the characteristic green LED lights their helmets have. Everyone shifts their fire at the Phantoms, who disappear from view and start running towards the defense line. While they are invisible, they aren't bulletproof, so some of them fall from the lead wall that is being thrown at them, suddenly popping in view and limply falling to the ground. Reaching the defense line, they start wrecking havoc among the ranks of Blackout's soldiers.

"Use pistols or knives!", one of the soldiers yells, since the Phantoms only have a blade as a weapon. Although it helps a bit to counter them, they still take heavy losses. Killing the last Phantom, Vin looks at the enemy, who is now about four hundred meters away from the remains of Blackout's forces, but surprisingly enough just standing there. "This is not going to end well", he says, seeing five more Phantoms appearing in front of the enemy forces.

"They must be trying to bleed our manpower little by little,before swarming us with all of their forces.", Rika says, aiming her Steyr Aug at the enemy soldiers.

"It seems they are on the move. Time to raise my K/D ratio", Luminous grins, firing a shot from her TLRR on one of the Phantoms, barely missing him and hitting a soldier that was behind him. The Phantoms, five in total, start running towards the defense line, but before everyone starts firing, a single girl with black hair starts running to the enemy forces, her uniform's insignia clearly indicating she is from the logistics department. "Someone stop that girl!", a soldier yells,but no one dares to leave the safety of their cover. Reaching about fifty meters away from the Phantoms, a circle with three prongs every 120 degrees starts glowing with a golden color on the back of Yuki's right hand, before a katana with a very simple handle materializes on her right hand. "Inner Peace", she says and closing her eyes, she feels time slowing down, a picture of her surroundings in black and white being formed in her mind. Spotting the silhouettes of the invisible Phantoms, she marks them and says, "Chain link", before snapping her eyes open and shoots forward at an incredible speed. Lifting her sword, she points it forward and a Phantom appears with a blade exiting from his back. Pulling the sword out of his abdomen, she leaves the body to fall on the ground and dashes at an unbelievable speed at the next invisible Phantom, this time decapitating him with a horizontal swing. The other three Phantoms meet a similar fate, everything happening so fast, that it seemed like Yuki was teleporting all over the place. Everyone is watching with their jaw dropped, unable to comprehend what they are seeing.

"Overseer, we have encountered a Class D individual, requesting permission to use an Executioner.", an enemy soldier speaks with his heavily synthesized voice.

 _"Request granted Unit-935"_ , the man hears a voice from his helmet saying. Turning to face the rest of his squad, he quickly orders them to inform the Executioner of his orders. Yuki is slowly walking towards the enemy troops, her sword pointing on the ground. Suddenly, a man that appears to be like a Phantom appears in front of her, though his helmet has six red LED lights. His suit looks to be made of a metal, as it is shining under the midday sun. Yuki immediately tries to go for a horizontal slash to decapitate him, but the man catches the blade with his metallic gloves and exerts enough pressure to break it. Yuki widens her eyes in surprise, not expecting the blade to break. Capitalizing on her mistake, the man punches Yuki on her left side, breaking four of her ribs and sending her barreling for about 10 meters. Coming to a stop, Yuki immediately tries to stand up, only for an excruciating pain on her left side to cause her to fall down, tears flowing from her eyes. Gritting her teeth, she tries to stand up again. Panting heavily and holding her left side with her right arm, a sword materializes in her left hand this time. The Executioner takes one step before disappearing and instantly appearing behind Yuki, ready to strike her back. Yuki pivots on her right leg and tries to block with her sword, but once again, the blade breaks from the force of the punch. "Shiroyama!", she yells and black samurai armor envelops her whole body. The Executioner tries to punch Yuki square on her chest, but she blocks it with her left hand. The armor instantly breaks and a loud _crack_ is heard from Yuki's left hand, indicating that it has broken. Falling to the ground, the fall further exacerbates her injuries, with Yuki crying and screaming from the extreme pain she feels. Having passed her limit, the black armor that was covering her vanishes. The Executioner stands above Yuki, ready to deliver the coup de grace. _I'm sorry Miho, I wasn't able to protect you or the others like you did for me_. Moving his left fist backwards to finish Yuki, the man gets hit with a red energy ball, causing him to get thrown ten meters backwards and barrel for another ten. Lifting his head to see what just happened he spots a black wolf with red eyes flash stepping in front of him. The wolf immediately bites his throat and rips it to pieces, blood and meat littering the ground around them. Yuki turns her head to the right and sees a figure with black hair and red eyes looking forward, glaring at the enemy soldiers with a piercing gaze. "I'm so glad", Yuki whispers, before fainting from the severity of her injuries, her body having exceeded its limit a long time ago. Summoning three black kunai knives at her right hand, she throws them into the air, the knives taking a parabolic trajectory and striking the ground on the enemy units, about two hundred meters away from her position. The moment the knives get lodged in the ground, three huge pillars of red energy shoot at the sky, most of the enemy forces getting annihilated, not even their ashes remaining.

"Hunt", she orders and the wolf starts hunting down the survivors of Miho's devastating attack, ripping their throats with its teeth. Miho hunches forward close to the ground and tendrils of bright red energy start snaking around her legs. Reaching her thighs, Miho shoots forward like a bullet, the ground beneath her feet cracking and the sudden change in velocity creating a shockwave. Stopping suddenly in front of a soldier, inertia takes over and the air behind her shoots forward and throws the man some fifty meters away, his landing accompanied by the sound of broken bones and a neck snapping. Unholstering her modified Luger, she starts shooting at the soldiers with such speed and accuracy, that within five seconds, the remaining six soldiers fall to the ground with a bullet between their eyes. "Pulse", she says and a red energy circle starts racing outwards from where she is standing for about one hundred meters. Not sensing any other life signatures in the vicinity, she holsters her pistol, her hair and eye color reverting to their original one.

"This is definitely something I won't get used to anytime soon.", she sighs, before starting to run towards Yuki. Kneeling beside her, she checks her pulse and her injuries. A huge bruise has formed in her hand, a result from the punch she received in her arm. "Can someone take her to the infirmary, she needs medical treatment immediately!", she yells to the rest of the Blackout soldiers, who stare at her like they are seeing an alien. Snapping out of his frozen state, Theodore rushes and picks up Yuki carefully, before running towards the infirmary. Standing up, Miho sees her friends approaching her, with Yukari once again tackling her on the ground.

"Miporin, what was all these...things you did!? You just shot a ball from your hand, then threw some knives and created these huge pillars of red energy and then you shot off like a bullet!", Saori yells, making incomprehensible hand gestures to try and express better what she wants to say.

"Miss Nishizumi, that was so cool, please teach me how to do these things!" Yukari's eyes were beaming with excitement.

"Sorry Yukari, but that's impossible.", she answers back with an apologetic smile, being helped by Yukari to stand up.

"Miho, if I may interrupt, what about the..."wolf" on your left?", Hana points at the wolf that is sitting on the ground next to Miho. Looking at the wolf, his ears perk up and he looks up at Miho.

"Umm, I am not too sure if he is supposed to vanish or remain here, but, do you want to stay with us?", Miho asks with an awkward smile and the wolf rises on his back legs and using Miho as a support, he starts licking her all over her face.

"Interesting. Despite being created by her powers, the wolf seems to be an independent entity.", Mako whispers, being quite intrigued by this turn of events.

"Black Wolves, Black Wolves, Black Wolves!", the soldiers start yelling and cheering in unison. The wolf in response starts howling, joining the chorus of voices and whistles.

"Are we sure we don't live inside a game or a fantasy world?", Luminous says with a blank face.

"Last time I checked there was no UI or any elves in the nearby woods", Rika responds with the same expression.

"I quit, I have seen too much shit for one day", Vin exclaims and starts heading back to the base.

* * *

Inside the emergency shelter, the school ship commanders were looking at one of the monitors that streamed what the UAV's camera was seeing. They all had a dumbfounded expression, unable to believe what they just had witnessed. "Was that really...magic? Because these things should only happen in fantasy novels, not in the real world...right?", Anchovy says, her eyes still glued on the monitor.

"The most pressing matter Anchovy is not what happened, but rather who did all these things", Darjeeling says with a calm tone.

"I think we already know", Kay responds, looking at Maho. Maho was looking at the monitor, a very sadden expression being hidden by her stoic face.

* * *

 **A/N: And the base has being saved! We also learned a lot of interesting things. Before I forget it, the next time you see the story updated, it will probably have a different name and chapters 1, 2 and 4 will be rewritten. Chapter 3 will probably have some small changes too. Anyways,** **a** **s always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**


	16. Chapter 16: Memories of the Past

**The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 16: Memories of the Past**

* * *

 **Saturday**

 **27th of May 2 Y.A.**

 **Hospital building of Blackout's main base**

 **Room 45**

Opening her eyes slowly and tiredly, Annabelle gazed upwards at a white ceiling. Her mind was blank, no thoughts occupying her headache ridden head, her whole body feeling as if it was hit by a train. Though she hadn't moved her gaze from the ceiling, she could tell she was lying on something soft at a large space.

Stirring up a bit, she noticed she was lying on a bed, white sheets covering her body. Sitting up on it, a jolting pain shot through her back and head, with Annabelle groaning in response, her hands gripping the sheets hard. Rubbing her head a little, she took some time to let the pain mitigate, before scanning her surroundings.

It was a usual room you would find in a hospital. White walls, blue floor and fluorescent lights hanging from the ceiling.

There were six beds inside the room, all with an injured Blackout soldier. Despite their injuries, which ranged from bruises and broken bones, to concussions and lost appendages, they seemed to be in a stable state.

 _What am I doing here_ , Annabelle thought, before flashbacks of the battle flooded her head, another jolting pain grasping her brain. This time the pain is so intense, that she grabs her head with both hands, gritting her teeth.

"Are you okay?" she hears a female voice say. Looking up, she spots a woman with a white nurse's uniform approach her.

"Yeah, my head is just killing me right now," Annabelle says quietly so as not to wake up the other occupants.

"It's just from the exhaustion," The nurse says back. "You should rest a bit more."

"No, I'm fine," Annabelle says, taking a few deep breaths. "Had anyone came to see me?" she asks the nurse, noticing the plastic chairs placed at the sides of her bed.

"Yes, there were six visitors. If I recall, they were two boys and four girls, though two of the girls didn't seem to get along."

 _It must have been Odysseus and Assam_ , she guesses, already sweatdropping at the prospect of leaving Odysseus alone with Assam. "Do you know where the two girls that didn't get along are?" she asks politely.

"I think they left about 10 minutes ago and went to the upper floors, though I am not too sure," the nurse answers.

"Thanks," Annabelle says, before getting out of the bed.

"You shouldn't move around yet, your wounds haven't healed enough," the nurse says quickly, stepping in front of her.

"I'm just going to take some fresh air on the rooftop," Annabelle excuses herself.

"In the middle of the night?"

"Wait, what time is it?"

"It is 3 in the morning," the nurse responds after checking her watch.

"Well, at least the air is gonna be cool," Annabelle says, before sidestepping and passing the nurse, exiting the room.

"Youngsters these days," the nurse sighs, shaking her head, before going back to checking the rest of the wounded people.

Walking up the stairs, Annabelle can feel the stitches pulling her skin of the wound that runs horizontally in her back, making it difficult to even move.

 _Damn this piece of shrapnel that hit me_. _Though I was saved by the bulletproof vest_ , she thinks, thankful that the vest stopped the piece from grazing her deeper and potentially severing her spine.

Reaching the final flight of stairs, she can hear two voices speaking, though she can't hear them well. Approaching slowly, she sticks to the wall next to the opened door that leads at the rooftop. Peeking from the side, she spots two blonde girls arguing, though one of the girls is at least a head taller than the other.

"I am telling you, you should convince lady Annabelle to come back to the carrier," Assam tells Odysseus with a calm voice.

"And I am telling you Assam, I won't," Odysseus answers back.

"Lady Annabelle is of noble birth, she should not do such jobs, such as being a mercenary," Assam tells Odysseus with slight anger hidden in her voice.

"Oh, so she should be in Tea Garden, doing nothing but drinking tea, eating cakes and gaze at one of the lovely decorated walls all day long," Odysseus says with sarcasm.

"I would appreciate it if you didn't insult Tea Garden. I'll have you know that the best students gather there and almost everyone strives to become part of it," Assam says, irritated by Odysseus' comment.

"You know, I was part of Saint Gloriana, I know what Tea Garden is."

"Than you also know that she should be there and not in some kind of battlefield," Assam says with a serious expression, her patience starting to wear thin.

"Listen Assam, she chose to be on a battlefield by her own volition."

"Then why didn't you stopped her? Do you really care for her so little?"

"Look, I care for her and as her best friend, I want her to be safe. But I cannot restrict her freedom by telling her to do something she doesn't want!" Odysseus says loudly, also having grown tired of Assam's constant nagging.

"You say that, yet you let her get injured. How can you call yourself her best friend, if you can't protect her."

Odysseus stays silent, her light purple eyes gazing Assam's. Assam feels a chill run through her spine, but she maintains her composure.

"I believe you shouldn't be with lady Annabelle. Not only do you cause her trouble constantly, she has to babysit you and make sure you don't do anything stupid. Couple it with your unstable mental state, you aren't trustworthy enough to protect her."

"You take that back right now Assam!" a voice yells, and both blondes turn to face a third figure with emerald green eyes and long red hair.

"L-Lady Annabelle, wh-what-" Assam tries to say, but is cut short from Annabelle.

"You take back what you said right now! Odysseus is my best friend and I trust her more than anyone! We have been through a lot together, so not being trustworthy is a lie!" Annabelle yells, pure anger escaping from her mouth.

"But she is mentally unstable, she can't be entrusted with someone of noble birth."

"If you say these words again, I'm gonna make you regret it Assam," Annabelle threatens, causing Assam to take a step away from her.

"Wh-What do you mean?" Assam asks, fear etched in her face.

"Never, ever, call me of noble birth or nobility. I have cast these titles aside from the day I was born. You don't know my past, so I do not expect you to understand why..." Annabelle trails off, tears forming in her eyes, before turning and running towards her room.

"Wait, Annabelle!" Odysseus yells, running behind the crying redhead.

Assam just stands there, not exactly sure what really happened at the end. The rooftop falls silent yet again, the stars shining light down at the building.

"I guess it didn't go as you expected," a calm voice says.

"You were here the whole time Darjeeling?" Assam asks, her voice sounding bitter.

"Yes, though I didn't reveal myself, so as not to influence the conversation."

Stopping in front of Assam, she offers her a plastic cup of green tea. "It's not as good as the one back in the carrier, but it should suffice for now."

"Thank you very much," Assam says, taking the cup and sipping some of its contents.

"You know, Elpida does have a point. We can't decide the future of others as though they belong to us."

"I just want to make sure she won't get hurt."

"Elpida wants the same, but not at the cost of restricting her freedom. There is a reason why Annabelle rejects her titles and social status so strongly."

"Mind if I join the conversation too?" a voice is heard saying. A girl with ginger hair and light purple eyes approaches Darjeeling and Assam with a plastic cup of tea. Her hair are tied in two braids tied in twist buns.

"Of course not Orange Pekoe. I was about to inform Assam of Annabelle's past."

Nodding, Orange Pekoe takes a small sip of her tea, waiting for Darjeeling to start.

"As both of you know, Annabelle was born in a noble family. Her mother died right after giving birth to her, so she grew up with only one parent. What you don't know is that her father saw her as nothing more than property. He treated her badly and always expected of her to do how she was told. Her every step had already been decided by him. She was like a bird living in a golden cage, with colorful shackles holding her in place. At the age of sixteen, she was to be married to another noble family as part of a deal between them. It was at this time when she managed to apply as a transfer student to our school. Due to her social status, she was immediately accepted. Shortly after coming though, a huge sum of English pounds were donated in our school."

"Her father donated the money?" Assam asks.

"Yes. In exchange, Annabelle was to not participate in any physical activities," Darjeeling says with a sad tone.

"So, her father wanted to show her that he had complete control over her life," Orange Pekoe says quietly.

"Yes. Do you understand now why Annabelle hates so much her social status?"

" I-I didn't know. I-If I knew I..." Assam tries to finish her sentence, but no words come out.

"Just remember Assam, never judge a book by its cover," Darjeeling says, before starting to walk slowly back at the room that was provided to her for the night, followed closely by Orange Pekoe.

Looking inside her now empty cup for a little, Assam crushes it in her hands, before depositing it at a nearby bin and following Darjeeling back at the room.

* * *

"Come on Annabelle, you have been crying for almost five minutes," Odysseus says, tugging softly at Annabelle, who is hiding under the bedsheets.

"Leave me alone Odysseus," Annabelle responds, her voice being muffled by the bedsheets.

"Is she okay?" the nurse asks Odysseus.

"Yes, she just remembered some bad memories," Odysseus smiles awkwardly at the nurse. Turning to face Annabelle, she sighs loudly, before hugging her over the bedsheets.

"Can you at least look me in the eyes?"

Annabelle reluctantly peeks out of the sheets, her eyes red from crying, with dried tear lines on her cheeks.

"Seriously, I want to know who takes care who," Odysseus says, wiping Annabelle's dried tears.

"Me, you dummy," Annabelle responds back, a small but unnoticeable smile forming in her face.

"I thought you'd say that. Anyway, I'm going to get something to eat. Try to get some sleep. Your wounds won't heal if you don't rest."

And with that, Odysseus get's out of the room in search of a vending machine. Annabelle finally gets the upper half of her body out of the sheets. Lying on the bed and closing her eyes, she starts feeling really tired, before falling asleep.

 _(DREAM SEQUENCE)_

Opening her eyes, Annabelle finds herself lying on the ground. Sitting up and looking around, she sees nothing but darkness surrounding her.

 _Where am I?_ Standing up, she starts walking towards a random direction.

Suddenly, an orb of orange light appears in the distance.

 _What's this?_ Annabelle starts walking towards the orb, who seems to be floating in the air. Reaching the orb, she thoroughly inspects it. _It seems like an orb of light that is floating...yep, I'm definitely dreaming. Though I do wonder what will happen if touch it._

Raising her right hand, she grabs the orb. Its light immediately starts snaking through Annabelle's body like water, covering it whole, before it becomes dim and vanishes completely. Her surroundings change in an instant. Blinking a few times, her eyes widen in fear, as her face becomes pale. _N-No, th-there is no way I-I'm back here!_

Annabelle looks all around her, panicking at what she is seeing.

 _I can't be back home in England!_ Annabelle stands in the middle of a huge room, filled with various expensive furniture. In front of a huge window stands a very expensive office desk, with a man sitting behind it, reading and signing some papers. The man's figure seems to be blurred, only its outline been visible. Suddenly, the two large wooden doors open and in comes a little girl, no older than 4, with red hair and emerald green eyes. She is wearing a pink dress which has white frills on its ends. In her left hand she holds a drawing, while on her right hand she holds a marker.

 _"Daddy, Daddy, I made you a drawing!"_ the small girl says cheerfully, running in front of the desk and placing the drawing on top of the papers the man behind the desk was reading. The man takes the drawing and rips it to pieces, before throwing them in a bin next to the desk.

 _"Why did you do this?!"_ the little girl screams, tears already running from her eyes. The man says something, though Annabelle can't hear it. _"You are always so mean!"_ the little girl yells as she runs out of the room. The man then returns to reading the papers in front of him.

 _I remember this. I wanted to make something for him and the bastard just destroyed it like it was trash._ Annabelle's eyes start to water, tears escaping them and rolling down her cheeks. The whole place becomes dark once again, before changing to a different location.

This time, Annabelle finds herself in a large room that has a huge dining table. On the head of the dining table sits the little girl with the red hair and emerald green eyes, though she seems to be a bit older. With her is a maid, keeping her company while she is eating, though once again, Annabelle can only make out the outline of the maid, as the rest are blurry.

 _"Why is Daddy always angry with me?"_ the little girl asks, playing with her food instead of eating it. The maid says something, but Annabelle can't hear it.

 _"But he always works! He never plays with me, he never talks to me and he always yells at me for not doing what he tells me!"_ the little girl says loudly, hitting with her small fists the table.

 _"Does Daddy hate me because I killed Mommy?"_ the little girl asks with a sad expression. The maid seems to be saying something quickly, before getting closer to the girl and hugging it.

 _"But you said that Mommy died after I was born. Doesn't that mean I killed her? That's why I make Daddy gifts and give them to him, so he can feel better,"_ the little girl says slowly, gazing at her food.

 _Even if they would tell me it wasn't my fault, I would always tell them I killed my mother. And my father's behavior didn't really helped to make me feel better._

Everything becomes black yet again, before shifting at a garden.

 _This is the back garden of our house,_ Annabelle thinks, instantly recognizing the place.

Three figures stand on the freshly cut lawn, two of them arguing, while the last one spectates silently.

 _"I don't want to learn an instrument, I want to do Tankery!"_ the girl, that now seems to be around 12, yells at the man. The man responds back, which only makes the girl even angrier.

 _"I might be your daughter, but I am not your property! I refuse to do whatever you want!"_ she screams and the man slaps her in the cheek, the girl falling silent. Though the force the man uses isn't anywhere near enough to cause pain, the girl falls to her knees, before starting to cry. The third figure, a maid, rushes to the girl, before kneeling besides her and hugging her. She seems to tell something to the man, who just starts walking back to the mansion.

 _He would always make my life a living hell, unless I did what he wanted to. Too bad I never learned any instruments_ , she thinks, smirking at the blurred man, before everything becomes dark.

This time, Annabelle finds herself inside the room with the large office desk yet again. A few meters away from the desk stands a girl that resembles Annabelle a lot, though two years younger from how she looks now.

 _"I will not marry a guy that I clearly don't know and hate!"_ the younger Annabelle says loudly. The man seems to say something, which causes the girl to roll her eyes.

 _"I couldn't care less of our family name or for what you will get out of this political marriage!"_ she says with disgust. The man seems to say something, causing the girl to smile deviously.

 _"Are you sure? Because I have news for you,"_ she says, tossing a stack of papers on the desk. _"I leave for Japan in two days as a transfer student. And you can't do anything to stop me,"_ she grins. The man instantly stands up, but stops dead in his tracks from what he hears next. _"If you touch me, I'll make you regret it,"_ she says with an emotionless voice. _"And one more thing, from now on, my last name is Morris. I'll use my mother's last name and not yours."_ And with that, the younger Annabelle exits the room.

 _I felt so satisfied with his powerlessness, like I finally got rid of his control over me. How wrong I was,_ she thinks, while the scene shifts once again at a very familiar place.

Looking around her, she could see a very nice building, surrounded by a small brick wall. A part of the wall has been replaced by two big metal gates. From the gate comes a girl with red hair that are tied in a braid, her emerald green eyes shining under the afternoon sun. She is wearing the Saint Gloriana's school uniform, along with white gloves made of silk. On her left hand she is holding an envelope, its edges decorated with a flower pattern.

 _It must be the day I was invited to join the Tea Garden. So that means it is the day I met Odysseus,_ she thinks, before dashing to her younger copy, standing next to her.

Opening the letter, the younger Annabelle starts reading its contents aloud with a bored expression.

 _"Miss Morris Annabelle, we would like to formally invite you to Tea Garden, due to your excellent grades and behavior. We believe that your addition would greatly benefit the school as a whole. Should you accept the invitation, you will be given a soul name. I am truly sorry, but I have no intention of sitting on a chair and drinking tea for the rest of my life,"_ she murmurs, before sliding the invitation back to the envelope and putting it in one of the uniform's pocket.

 _What I am interested in is,_ Annabelle thinks, knowing very well what will happen next. The younger Annabelle passes by a notice board, where a leaflet about the Senshadou club is pinned. Looking at it briefly, she stands there with a thoughtful expression, before walking towards the Garage, where the tanks of the Senshadou teams are being kept. While walking towards her destination, several whispers can be heard coming from the school girls she passes by.

 _"Isn't this Lady Annabelle?"_

 _"I heard she is from England, isn't that awesome?!"_

 _"I heard she is from a noble family."_

 _"Really? No wonder why her composure is so elegant."_

 _"She has that air of a proper lady."_

Not paying any attention to them, she reaches the Garage and enters it. Looking around, she finds no tanks, meaning that the club has practice now.

 _"May I help you?"_ she hears a voice calling. Turning her head, she spots a short girl with brown eyes and brown hair.

 _"I'd like to join the Senshadou club,"_ the redhead says as politely as possible.

 _"Oh, umm, L-Lady Annabelle,"_ the short girl stutters, her mind going blank.

 _"Is there a problem with me joining?"_

 _"N-No, not at all! Umm, please wait here for a moment!"_ she responds, running off somewhere in the garage.

After 2 minutes, she comes back with a form in her right hand. _"Please, fill this form. The club will handle the rest."_

 _"Do you mind if I fill it here? And could you lend me a pen or a pencil please?"_

 _"N-Not at all, here!"_ the short girl says, handing her the form and a pen.

After filling the form, she gives it back with the pen and bids the short girl farewell.

 _I think I know where this is going,_ the older Annabelle thinks, as the scenery changes once again, this time finding herself in the principal's office.

 _"What do you mean I can't join the club?"_ the younger Annabelle demands, standing right in front of the desk.

 _"I am truly sorry, but due to certain circumstances, we cannot allow you to participate in it. You could always choose another activity, such as flower arrangement or calligraphy,"_ the principal says, sweating bullets.

 _"What circumstances?"_ the younger Annabelle asks threateningly, a very severe look on her face.

 _"Y-You see, y-your father made a huge donation to our school and in return, he asked that you are to be refrained from any physical activities,"_ he responds, his voice getting quieter as he keeps speaking.

The younger Annabelle says nothing at first.

 _"I see. I'll be on my way then,"_ she says politely with a smile, a smile that says 'watch your back from now on', causing the principal to nearly squeal. Exiting the office, she closes the door, before she starts running to the rooftop of the school building, the older Annabelle following her.

Exiting to the rooftop, she goes and sits at one of the corners of the chain link fence, sitting on her butt, with her head between her knees. Tears flow from her cheeks and into her legs, which inadvertently carry the tears to her uniform.

 _"It's unfair, why does this man has to always make my life a living hell!"_ the younger Annabelle screams, hitting the chain link fence behind her with her right hand.

Annabelle can't do anything, but gaze at her with a sad smile. Suddenly, the doors to the rooftop open and out comes a tall blonde girl with light purple eyes, she too wearing Saint Gloriana's uniform.

 _"Why are you crying?"_ the blonde asks, making her way towards the crying redhead.

 _"It's none of your business, so please leave me alone."_

 _"But I could never leave such a cutie in such a sorry state,"_ the blonde answers back, sitting next to the crying girl.

 _"You aren't going to leave me alone, are you?"_ Annabelle asks, having stopped crying and raising her head.

 _"Nope. I couldn't care less if you are nobility or from England, I'll do whatever I want,"_ she answers back with a silly grin.

 _"You are the first one to ever talk to me normally. Most people talk to me formally and will do everything for me,"_ Annabelle says, now gazing at the concrete floor of the roof.

 _"Being in a noble family must be hard. Me myself never had one, so i can't relate to your problems, but I can understand them to a certain extent,"_ the blonde says with a small hint of sadness.

 _"You never had one?"_

 _"Well, I had but I lost them. If you want I can tell you my past, though you'll have to promise me to tell no one."_

 _"O-Okay, I promise to tell no one."_

After speaking about her past, the blonde sighs loudly. _"I'd understand if you wouldn't get near me from now on. Maybe I shouldn't have rushed it,"_ she laughs awkwardly.

The younger Annabelle stares at her with a sad expression. _"You don't have any friends, do you?"_

 _"Nope. I just can't get along with anyone. They all seem so 'elegant' and 'ladylike'; it makes me feel weird,"_ the blonde says sarcastically.

The younger Annabelle starts giggling, then laughing. _"You must be the first girl in the whole school who doesn't wants to be ladylike!"_ she manages to say between her laughs. Wiping a tear from her right eye, she stands up and turns to face the blonde.

 _"My name is Annabelle Morris, nice to meet you,"_ the redhead says, lifting her right hand for a handshake.

 _"Elpida Papaioannou. Though most girls here call me Odysseus, it is easier for them to pronounce it,"_ Odysseus says, shaking Annabelle's hand, before standing up. _"So, I guess we are friends now?"_

 _"Yes,"_ she says with a bright smile.

 _"Yes! Finally I have a friend!"_ she says in an intentionally exaggerated tone. _"That reminds me, you were interested in Senshadou, right?"_

 _"Yes, but due to certain circumstances, I cannot join the club,"_ she tells Odysseus with a sad expression.

 _"Then how about I get you inside one of the tanks? I am a member of the club, and we have finished practice for today."_

 _"Won't you get in trouble though?"_ Annabelle asks worryingly.

 _"Totally worth it in my opinion. You are my friend now and as a result, my family. So I don't mind if I get in trouble,"_ Odysseus says with a toothy grin.

The last words make Annabelle to stop dead in her tracks, tears once again forming in her eyes.

 _"D-Did I said something that hurt you?!"_ Odysseus says in a panicked tone.

 _"No...that's not it. Its just that no one... ever treated me like their family,"_ Annabelle says, desperately trying to wipe her tears with her gloved hands.

 _"Well, there is always a first time for everything,"_ Odysseus says cheerfully, before grabbing Annabelle's hand and dragging her towards the garage.

 _Though I always say I am taking care of you, you are the one that helped me stand on my feet when I needed help the most,_ Annabelle thinks as everything become dark once again. A single tear runs from her cheek. This tear however is glowing with the same color as the one the orb that Annabelle touched previously had. Falling from her cheek to the ground, the void instantly becomes white, before a blinding light fills her whole vision.

* * *

 **A/N:And there we have chapter 16, with some insight about Annabelle's past, as well as her meeting with Odysseus. Next chapter will be about Saint Gloriana and what happened these two years after the earthquakes. After that is Kuromorimine. Don't know if I'll have the rest of the schools.** **Anyway, a** **s always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and** **there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**


	17. Chapter 17: A Piece of the Past

**The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 17: A Piece of the Past**

* * *

Opening her eyes slowly, Annabelle lifts her left hand to shield her face from the blinding light that hits her. Letting her eyes adjust to the new environment, she lowers her hand and sits up on the bed. Although she feels quite tired and wants to go back to sleep, a certain weight that presses her on her left thigh keeps her from lying down again.

Looking down, she spots a blonde girl using her thigh as a pillow to sleep, drooling over the bedsheets.

"Rise and shine Odysseus," she says, her voice still groggy. "And stop drooling over my bedsheets."

The blonde girl shows signs of movement, raising her head slowly.

"Eh? Oh, good morning," she slurs. Her eyes are half open, drool hangs from the left corner of her mouth and she is barely able to keep her head raised. She unconsciously uses the sleeve of her uniform to wipe the drool from her mouth.

"Wow commander, you look like a zombie," Annabelle jokes, yawning a bit, before stretching her arms.

"Braiiiinnnsss," Odysseus says, mimicking a zombie. She too stretches her arms, before standing up to stretch her legs. "It is way too uncomfortable to sleep like I did," Odysseus complains, before pausing suddenly.

"Is something the matter?" Annabelle asks, seeing Odysseus patting with both hands all over her uniform.

Patting over a pocket, she starts searching that pocket with her left hand. Grabbing something, she pulls out of the pocket an envelope, whose corners are decorated with a flower pattern.

"Wait, isn't that an envelope from Tea Garden?" Annabelle asks in amazement, recognizing the envelope.

"Yep. Darjeeling came earlier in the morning and gave me this envelope," she answers as she waves the envelope in the air.

"Does that mean that they invited you in Tea Garden?" Annabelle asks in both surprise and terror, her imagination running wild at the prospect of Odysseus of all people entering such a prestigious and refined group of people.

Odysseus just laughs at Annabelle's comment, her eyes tearing. "Hahahaha, that was pure gold! Since when are you a comedian Annabelle?!" After calming down and wiping her eyes, she turns to face Annabelle, stifling some giggles.

"We had one apocalypse, we don't need a second one right now," she says, causing Annabelle to burst in laughter. "Anyway, care for a walk?" she asks, raising the envelope next to her head.

"Sure," Annabelle responds.

Getting out of the bed, the two girls proceed to exit the room.

"So, what did I miss while I was out?" Annabelle asks.

"Well, we managed to repel the enemy, though the casualties were high."

"Really? How on Earth did we manage to repel such fearsome force with our numbers?"

"Well...how should I put this?" Odysseus says slowly, trying to think a way to explain what happened at the enemy forces.

"I'll be blunt, Miho exterminated them with magical powers," she says with a serious face.

"Cool," Annabelle responds calmly.

"What, you are just gonna believe me?" Odysseus asks incredulously.

"Too tired to do the opposite," she answers. Odysseus chuckles at that.

As the girls pass through the hallways, everywhere they look, they see medical beds with an injured person on them, nurses checking them.

"You weren't kidding when you said the casualties were high," remarked Annabelle, eyeing the soldiers.

"Yeah, these Phantom guys sure did a number on them. I am amazed that most of them are even alive."

"And with the orbital platform that floats above our heads, I am amazed we aren't dead yet."

"Who knows, maybe they want the base for themselves, so they are refraining from firing it at us," Odysseus blurts out.

"Let's hope that's the case," Annabelle replies, her voice filled with concern.

Exiting the hospital, they immediately find themselves in front of the main courtyard. Following one of the paths that is laid with stone bricks, they find a bench under the shade of a cherry tree. Sitting on the bench, they both take a moment to admire the view, looking around the empty courtyard.

"How are Tyler and Reiji doing?" Annabelle asks.

"They are fine. Minor wounds and grazes from the spalling that happened in the tank. Reiji also has a huge bruise in his chest from a flying Tyler," Odysseus snickers.

"Yeah, I remember that. Though I have to say, I expected to have a huge bruise in my abdomen too," Annabelle says, looking at her abdomen.

"You have to thank your bulletproof vest for that. It absorbed most of the force from the Phantom's punches. I have to ask, are you sure you can walk fine?" Odysseus asks, pointing at Annabelle's bandaged feet.

"Well, it hurts like hell, but that won't stop me from walking," Annabelle shrugs at her blonde friend.

"If you say so," Odysseus responds reservedly.

Looking at the nearby buildings, Annabelle sighs lightly, eyeing their damaged sections.

"It's strange how whole sections of buildings were destroyed, yet the courtyard is untouched," Annabelle says, scanning the courtyard for any damage.

"We can always blame it in the universe conspiring against us," Odysseus replies.

"But that doesn't make any sense," Annabelle responds.

"I know. Anyway, let's get the party started," Odysseus says, before opening the envelope and retrieving a letter from it.

"So, I guess we will finally know our school's fate," Annabelle says, putting her head on Odysseus' right shoulder, as to be able to see what is written in the letter.

"I guess we will," Odysseus murmurs.

Unfolding the letter, she clears her throat, before reading its contents aloud.

"Dear Annabelle and Elpida, if you are reading this letter, than that means I am currently traveling back at the carrier, and thus had no time to inform you of what had happened on HMS Ark Royal this past two years. Since both of you were and still are part of Saint Gloriana, I feel it is my duty as its overall commander to inform you of its fate. For the sake of completion, I shall start from the events that transpired one week after the earthquakes and what came to be known as the Apocalypse."

* * *

 **1 week after the earthquakes**

 **On board the HMS Ark Royal**

 **Saint Gloriana Girls High School**

 **Principal's office**

Inside the principal's office are two figures, locked in a never ending conversation. One of the figures is a middle aged man sitting behind a large office desk, wearing a suit. In one of the chairs that are placed in front of the desk sits a girl, sipping some tea from a porcelain teacup. Though instead of wearing the school's uniform, she wears the one that is used during Senshadou battles.

"As I have told you, approaching any of the deep ports would be dangerous," the girl tells the man calmly.

"It's our only option if we want to survive! We get in one of the deep ports and then contact the JSDF. I am sure they are already handling the situation," the man answers back, not changing his opinion one bit.

"Have you not been following the news this past week? The government has collapsed, most major cities lie in ruin and the general topography of Japan has completely changed. Principal, if we go in a deep port, chances are that the carrier will be swarmed by looters, bandits and desperate people. Since the carrier's population consists mostly of high school girls, we lack the proper defense force to fend for ourselves and the police won't be able to do anything with their numbers," the girl counters back.

"I have faith that the JSDF will have everything under control. I am in charge here and my orders are absolute. So I'd appreciate it Miss Darjeeling, if you could kindly step out of the office. I have work to do," the principal says with a commanding tone.

"It is a shame. As an older and more experienced man, I expected you to be wiser. I really hoped we could see eye to eye about our next step, but it seems I was wrong. Principal, in this new world, faith alone means nothing," Darjeeling responds, before standing up elegantly.

"You live me no other choice. As of now, Tea Garden has full control of the carrier," she says as she walks towards the door.

"What?! You can't do that! I am the one in charge here!"

"You see, Tea Garden's members are the best students in both grades and behavior. Also, the carrier is run mostly by high school girls. Naturally, some of our members have positions of influence that are above yours."

"I'll have you and Tea Garden arrested for mutiny!" the man yells, ready to pick up the phone and call the carrier's police.

"Should you do this, I'll expose to the police your financial transactions. I'm sure they'd love to ask you about the big sums of money that recently got transferred into your account," Darjeeling says with a smile, holding a paper in her right hand.

The man instantly freezes, his hand hovering over the phone. After a few moments, he hesitantly withdraws it, before slumping on his chair, his face buried in his hands.

Exiting the office and closing the doors, Darjeeling finds both Assam and Orange Pekoe waiting for her.

"You know Darjeeling, deception is not elegant at all," Assam frowns at her commander.

"Assam, you'll come to understand that even elegant women will have to use deception at some point," she responds, crushing the paper that supposedly has the principal's financial transactions. In reality, the paper was nothing more than a report on the Senshadou club's expenses.

"What do we do now?" Orange Pekoe asks.

"Contact every member of Tea Garden and inform them that their presence is needed, they must be informed of our next move. Assam, please inform Annabelle that she must be present at Tea Garden."

"What about Elpida?" Orange Pekoe asks.

"You know how the other members feel about her, we cannot have everyone being on disarray at this time. I'm sure she will learn of our plans one way or another. I shall go and inform Jasmine of our plans," Darjeeling answers to Orange Pekoe.

"Jasmine? You mean the carrier's captain?" Assam asks.

"Yes. Except for being a member of Tea Garden, she is also a close friend of mine. She rarely comes over for tea, since she must always be present on the bridge."

"Are you sure we can trust her?" Orange Pekoe asks.

"Yes. Once she hears my explanation, she'll agree with our plan. Now everyone, time to set our plan in motion."

Saying nothing more, the three girls take their own way to fulfill their orders.

* * *

 **2 weeks after the earthquakes**

 **On board HMS Ark Royal**

"I'm glad you could join me for some tea Jasmine," Darjeeling says while filling two porcelain teacups with tea. She is seated in a luxurious chair, a small table standing in front of her. Across her sits a girl of average height wearing a captain's uniform, her peaked hat neatly placed on top of the table. She has black hair and amber colored eyes.

"The ship is anchored, so I am not needed in the bridge right now," Jasmine responds, sipping some of her steaming tea. "How much I missed such good tea," she sighs in delight.

"Then you should come more often here," Darjeeling says at her.

"I'd love to, but there's no other captain on board. Anyway, we are here to discuss your next move, not to persuade me to visit more often," Jasmine says with a serious expression.

"You never take time to relax, do you?" Darjeeling sighs a little, before continuing, "Very well, I'll start by informing you of my plan."

Putting down her teacup, she opens a map that has a very crude drawing of the coastline.

"For the past 3 days I had members of the cartography club be flown over the coastline to map it out. They told me they found a very steep cliff, 2 kilometers away from here."

"You don't plan on ramming the ship on the cliffside, do you?" Jasmine asks, a worried expression on her face.

"Of course not. Here, take a look at this," Darjeeling answers as she passes a picture on Jasmine. Looking at it carefully, Jasmine can see a very steep cliffside with a narrow V shape.

"Oh, you intend to lodge it in the cliffside. My question is, will it be able to move in case of an emergency?" Jasmine asks, eyeing the picture carefully.

"Theoretically yes. Since we will have the anchors to keep us in place, there shouldn't be any problem to move. Though I'd expect a few damages on the bow of the carrier."

"What about the weather? If waves start rocking the ship, it could severely damage the hull."

"I've taken this into consideration too. Luckily, the cliffside is inside a bay, so waves are of no concern."

"You've though of everything it seems. Fine, I'll agree with your plan, but only if you can promise the safety of everyone during its execution," Jasmine says with a serious expression.

"You have my word, no one is going to get injured," Darjeeling says, sipping what little tea has been left in her teacup.

"Then I'll be awaiting your orders commander," she snaps a salute, before putting her peaked hat on her head and walking out of the room.

 _Always so professional,_ Darjeeling thinks, before standing up and exiting the room too.

* * *

 **30 minutes later**

"Bring her as slowly as possible," Jasmine commands the helmsman, as the carrier enters the bay, where the cliffside is.

"Captain, are you sure this will work? Can't we just go in one of the deep ports?" one of the navigators that is charged with making sure they remain on course asks.

"Even if we managed to find a working deep port, there is no harbour pilot to help as enter the harbour, meaning we run the risk of either running aground or not docking properly," she answers back, gazing at the cliffside.

"Start turning right," she commands and the carrier starts turning, until it is facing the cliff.

"Listen up, approach the cliff with the least possible speed. The moment we make contact, release the anchors and stop the engines."

 _I hope you know what you are doing Darjeeling_ , she thinks as she eyes three Crusader tanks standing at the flat metal part of the carrier's deck that is in its bow, with six figures standing in front of them.

"Listen well ladies, the moment the carrier hits the cliff and releases its anchors, you'll get off the carrier and scout the area in an one-kilometer radius from it," Darjeeling says standing in front of the commanders of the Crusader tanks. Flanking her to her sides are Assam and Orange Pekoe, who both are holding a radio in their hands. "If you find anything of interest, report at either Assam or Orange Pekoe immediately."

"Yes commander!" the three tank commanders respond.

"And Rosehip, please don't push the tank too much, we don't have the luxury of spending parts to fix it," Darjeeling says to Rosehip, hoping she won't remove the limiters from the engine as she did at the match with Selection.

"Don't worry commander, Vanilla will make sure she behaves like a lady!" a short girl with pale blond hair and brown eyes that is positioned at Rosehip's right says cheerfully.

"Cr-Cranberry will try her best too!" a girl that is slightly taller than Vanilla and has dark red hair with hazel eyes says timidly from Rosehip's left side.

"Thank you girls", Darjeeling says, before looking over her left shoulder at the approaching cliff. "You have your orders, now enter your tanks!"

"Yes commander!" the girls shout once again, before entering their tanks.

As the carrier draws closer and closer to the cliffside, an alarm starts blaring through the carrier, meant to inform everyone about the imminent collision.

"You did inform everyone of this, did you not?" Darjeeling asks Orange Pekoe, who simply nods back at her.

Hitting the cliffside at a speed of 2 knots, the whole carrier shakes, as the sound of steel grinding against rock and dirt resounds in the air. Darjeeling is barely able to keep her balance, while Assam falls straight to the ground, grumbling about how the whole situation is not ladylike. Losing all of its momentum, the carrier's anchors are dropped, their contact with the sea marked by two great splashes of sea water. Immediately the three Crusaders shoot off of the deck and into the cliff, descending at the tiny forest that resides at the foot of the cliff and then exiting at a huge plain.

"Will they be alright?" Orange Pekoe asks.

"They should be fine. They are in light tanks, so in the unlikely event that someone or something chases them, they'll be able to outrun it," Darjeeling responds back.

Turning to face Assam, she hands her a small stack of papers. "This is the student roster of the whole school. Find the ones you think are the most capable and add them to Section 6."

"May I know the reason for this?" Assam asks, confused as to why she wants to add more people to Section 6 now.

"As of now, Section 6 is the Information Analysis and Threat Assessment department for the carrier," Darjeeling says with a smile.

"I understand," Assam curtly replies, before scanning the student roster for potential people.

"You think we will manage to survive?" Orange Pekoe asks worryingly.

"Didn't know you were the worrying type Orange Pekoe."

"Aren't you worrying Darjeeling of what might happen?"

"I have a whole carrier and its occupants to worry for, I don't need to worry about the future too. I'm sure we will be fine Orange Pekoe," she says with a serious expression, looking at the top of the cliff, where the carrier's deck and the ground meet.

* * *

 **2 months after the earthquakes**

Inside the principal's office, Darjeeling is sitting on a swivel chair behind a large office desk, stacks of papers towering on it. Darjeeling is reading some of the documents, a serious expression on her face. Putting the document down, she picks her teacup that sits on the left corner of the desk, sipping some of its contents.

Suddenly, the door opens and Assam enters the room.

"Ah, Assam, in what do I own this visit?" Darjeeling asks, not expecting Assam at such late hour.

"I've come to see how you are doing. Lately, you spend more and more time here. You owe to take a break once in a while," she says, sitting in one of the two chairs that are placed in front of the office desk.

"I know, but someone has to manage the carrier," she responds, sighing loudly.

"How are things?"

"Not good. We've managed to last this long, but our supplies are running low. First of all, food. Even with rationing, we will be lucky to make it till the end of this month. After that, it will only be canned food. Water's not a problem, thanks to the river that flows at the foot of the cliff. Medicine is a huge problem right now. We are nearly out of everything the carrier had. Thankfully, the carrier has enough fuel to provide us with electricity for at least eight more months, if we also use the power from the solar panels. After that it's back to the stone age. Also, people have started abandoning the carrier. An estimated 20% of the carrier's occupants have left in the last 4 weeks. I feel like this is an uphill battle." Darjeeling says, closing her eyes and burying her head in her left hand.

"The only good news is that the outpost at the edge of the tiny forest has finally been completed. I'll have the carrier's police forces stationed there, in case anyone with malicious intents appears."

"I see," Assam says slowly, understanding the gravity of the situation.

"Oh, almost forgot to tell you. Rosehip and her team found an abandoned town, about 10 kilometers from here. I sent them to explore it, so we might manage to find food and other necessities."

Hearing that, Darjeeling raises her head, sighing in relief. "Maybe we will be able to make ends meet somehow," she says with a smile.

"That reminds me, would you care for a cup of tea?" she asks Assam.

"But of course," Assam responds back.

* * *

 **6 months after the earthquakes**

Darjeeling is sitting in the same swivel chair behind the same office desk inside the principal's office, reading once again documents about various things for the carrier.

Suddenly the door gets opened with force and in comes Orange Pekoe, who is panting heavily, sweat covering her whole body.

"Darjeeling, bandits are attacking the outpost!" she says between deep breaths.

"What?!" Darjeeling gasps, immediately standing up, the swivel chair getting pushed backwards.

Picking the phone, she calls a number and after waiting for a few moments, she speaks. "Have the Senshadou club assemble at their designated vehicles now, the outpost is under attack," she says quickly, before terminating the call.

"Let's go," she says at Orange Pekoe.

Exiting the office, the two girls start walking quickly towards the exit of the school building.

"How many bandits are they?"

"About 10 vehicles with at least 6 bandits each," Orange Pekoe reports.

"They must either have come to destroy the outpost or they know about the carrier."

Exiting the school gates, they find the Churchill Mk VII in front of them, Assam waiting outside the tank.

"Where are the others?" Darjeeling asks as the three girls enter the tank and start heading for the outpost.

"I have already sent them to the outpost. The Crusaders should be arriving first, along with the Cromwells and the Comet. I've also ordered the helicopter to hover over the outpost, so we have an image of what's happening," Assam says.

As the Churchill descends the cliff and passes through the cleared part of the forest, an explosion is heard, along with screams and shouts, small arms being fired and engines revving up. Exiting to the outpost, the girls gasp at what they are seeing. The outpost is on fire, with people running left and right and shouting. Others lay on the ground with gunshot wounds or first degree burns.

Darjeeling gets out of the tank, since it seems the bandits have retreated and immediately Rosehip runs to her.

"Darjeeling, this is horrible!" she says, tears running from her eyes.

"What do you mean Rosehip?" she asks, before seeing what has caused her to lose her composure. In the ground lie motionless some of the carrier's police officers, full of bullet holes, blood pools around their bodies.

"Oh God," she says, putting her hand over her mouth.

"This is horrible," Orange Pekoe comments grimly, while Assam just averts her gaze from the horrible sight.

"Commander, we need to go after them now!" one of the Crusader commanders shouts desperately at Darjeeling, grabbing both of her hands. Her face is a mess, as tears flow from her quivering eyes down her cheeks.

"P-Please calm down and tell me what happened," Darjeeling stutters, starting to lose her composure under the sheer pressure she feels.

"The bandits managed to hit our tank with a rocket and the engine caught fire. So, when we abandoned it, they managed to take my gunner. Sh-She is my childhood friend, we need to go and get her back!" The commander of the Crusader falls to her knees and starts bawling. Her driver tries to calm her down, but she fails miserably, as she too starts crying.

"Miss Darjeeling?" a female voice asks

"Yes?" Darjeeling asks, turning to face whoever talked to her.

"I must inform you that there was another girl that was abducted by the bandits," a girl that wears a sailor's uniform says.

"Who?" she asks hesitantly, her instincts telling her not to ask for some reason.

"Captain Jasmine. She was at the outpost at the time of the attack and tried to fight along the police officers."

Darjeeling can feel her heart sinking at what she hears, her whole body losing its strength.

"Darjeeling, are you feeling alright?" Assam asks in a quivering voice, seeing that Darjeeling's face is visibly paler than usual.

"Assam, have the helicopter land here and load any of the police officers that can still fight, then have it follow the bandit forces. Rosehip, you and the rest of the Crusaders follow their forces too, but do not engage, we need to know where their base is. Orange Pekoe, have the Tortoise move out, we are going to rescue the missing girls."

As if flipping a switch, the last few words set everyone in motion, running around to fulfill their orders.

While the Crusaders start heading towards the bandit forces and the helicopter lands, Darjeeling sits down on the ground, taking this moment to clear her mind and generally try not to crumble mentally, everything that has transpired the past few minutes chipping away at her mental stamina rapidly.

 _I must not lose focus. I must remain calm or else chaos will ensue. If the leader panics, then their followers will too. I cannot allow that,_ she thinks. Taking some deep breaths to calm herself, she spots Assam coming her way, so she stands up, hitting lightly the back of her skirt to shake off any dirt that has stuck.

"The helicopter has been loaded and it will now head towards the bandit forces," Assam reports, she too having calmed somewhat.

"That's good," Darjeeling says, gazing at the ground.

"Are you sure you are fine?" Assam asks, concerned for her friend's well being.

"I knew that a day like this would have come, but still...it's really different when you think about it and when you actually live it."

Before Assam can respond, Orange Pekoe appears. "The Tortoise will be here within ten minutes," she says, her face sill expressing concern.

"Good. Have the Cromwells and Comet await outside of the outpost. I'll find you at the Churchill."

"You have something to do?" Orange Pekoe asks.

Saying nothing, Darjeeling walks slowly to a police officer's body. Kneeling besides it, she averts her gaze from it and grabs the pistol that lies besides the body. Standing up, she inspects the weapon and after finding what looks like a safety, she flicks it on the "on" option.

Both Assam and Orange Pekoe gasp at the sight of Darjeeling holding a gun, their eyes widening in response.

"Darjeeling, what do you want the gun?" Assam asks, visibly disturbed by her commander's actions.

"In case we need to defend ourselves," she responds, making her way towards the Churchill.

"D-Do you mean kill people? And do you even know how to use it?" Orange Pekoe asks, following Darjeeling closely, while Assam goes to inform the crews of the Cromwells and Comet.

"Don't worry, it's only for self defense. And no, but in close range is unlikely that I'll miss. Also, I have seen how they use them in movies, so it should be alright."

After entering the tank, they go and meet up with the other tanks outside of the outpost, where Assam also waits. Entering the tank, she pulls from below her seat a small tablet, where a map is displayed, showing the position of the Crusader tanks. Noting where they are, she paints a route on the map, before passing the tablet on the driver. After a few minutes, the Tortoise finally arrives and they all start going after the path Assam has designated on the tablet.

After about 30 minutes, they meet up with the Crusaders. In the distance a very large building made of metal can be seen, with two metal watchtower adorning it. Ten vehicles can be seen all around the building, with people that hold weapons casually strolling around it too, or being in groups and conversing.

Darjeeling gets out of her tank and jumps down on the ground, making her way in the front of the three Crusaders, where Rosehip stands, drinking some tea.

"Do you know where the helicopter is?" she asks Rosehip, not seeing it anywhere.

"The pilots landed it about a kilometer away from here to make sure they wouldn't get spotted," Rosehip responds, still gazing at the bandits' base.

"I see," she responds, before turning to face the rest of the tanks. "Everyone get out for a moment!" Darjeeling shouts loudly and the tank crews exit their respective vehicles.

"Before we start the rescue operation, I need everyone here to know that this is not like the Senshadou matches. The enemies will try to kill us, so you must not let your guard down. If you do, only death awaits you." At this, several of the girls gulp audibly. "Moreover, we...might have to take...lives in order to save our friends. In light of that, if anyone doesn't want to participate, she is welcome to return to the carrier," Darjeeling says.

All of the girls have fear written all over their face. Fear of death, fear of taking a life, but most of all, fear of losing their friends and comrades, so despite their shivering bodies and trembling arms, they all stand their ground. Eyeing each and every girl, Darjeeling nods, before speaking. "Get on your vehicles! Assam, tell the helicopter to come and provide support from the air, the rescue operation has started!"

"Yes ma'am!" everyone shouts.

Entering her tank, Darjeeling sighs loudly, wiping her forehead.

"Are you sure about this? You know there is no going back after this," Assam says after contacting the helicopter, trembling a little at the thought of having to kill a human being.

"This is the harsh reality of the world we live in. If you want to survive, you'll have to take a life at some point."

"This is not ladylike," Orange Pekoe says in a quivering voice.

"But a true lady never regrets her decisions and always is elegant," Darjeeling says with a smile, drinking some tea she had poured in a teacup a few minutes ago.

The moment she hears the rotor blades of the helicopter, she grabs the radio to speak. "The time to save our comrades draws near. Let us show them the might of Saint Gloriana's Senshadou team!" she declares and all the tanks shoot forwards, the crews eager to save their friends. Naturally the Comet and Cromwells take the lead, followed by the Crusaders and even further back, the Tortoise and Churchill Mk VII.

The cruiser tanks enter the base and start wrecking havoc, starting with transforming the civilian pick up trucks to metal pancakes. The bandits shoot at the tanks with their assault rifles, but the bullets just bounce on the steel plates of the tanks. Meanwhile, the Tortoise aims and fires an HE shell at one of the watchtowers, completely destroying it, as evidenced by the flaming metal pieces that rain down on the ground.

"Did they just fired?" Assam yells in surprise, not understanding why they would want to take lives. The Tortoise aims at the other watchtower and fires again, destroying it completely as a fireball and black smoke consume the metal structure.

By now, the helicopter has arrived at the base and the police officers are firing at the men, who are quick to redirect their own fire at them. Since the helicopter is a civilian model, the bullets punch through the metal and hit some of the officers. An RPG is fired and hits the helicopter, an explosion marking its demise as the flaming wreck falls to the ground, nearly hitting the Comet, but killing several bandits.

"The helicopter is down!" Vanilla cries through her radio. Everyone becomes nervous as they know what that means. Their only excuse to not shed blood is gone and unless the bandits are dealt with, they can't save their friends. The rattling of machine-guns fills the air, as the coaxials on the tanks start firing on the bandits. The Tortoise fires HE shells at the bandits and promptly stops, when some of the bodies get teared to pieces by the explosions, the crew not being able to handle the gore.

Some of the bandits start shouting for reinforcements to come from inside the building, but no one exits. After a few minutes, the whole space around the metal building has been cleared, with the bandits lying on the ground, either groaning and moaning from their non-fatal wounds, or lying motionless and dead. As all the tanks stop a few meters away from the main entrance of the building, their guns aimed at it, Darjeeling exits her tank with the pistol she had acquired and clicks the safety off.

"Darjeeling, are you planning to get inside the building?" Assam asks quickly, she too having exited the Churchill.

"Someone needs to go and rescue the girls," she responds.

"But they might be more bandits inside!"

"We have already spilled blood on our hands Assam, what's a little more?" she says with a serious expression as she nears the door. At this several of the girls wince and lower their heads, while others just shrug and a few outright start crying. Assam stops dead in her tracks, being caught off guard by Darjeeling's comment that is unlike her.

The door suddenly opens and out comes Jasmine, carrying a very bruised girl on her hands. Her own uniform is torn, with blood smeared all over it. Blood also trickles from her head, indicating that she got hit there by something.

"Darjeeling!" Jasmine says with an exhausted tone, grateful to see her friend.

"Jasmine watch out!" Darjeeling shouts, raising the pistol she has and holding it with both hands. A bandit with an assault rifle appears behind Jasmine, aiming at her head. A shot is heard and everyone gasps at the horrifying turn of events.

The bandit falls to the ground with a hole in his head, just above his right eye. Darjeeling's hands start to tremble as she realizes what she has done. Letting it fall to the ground, she too stumbles backwards and falls, hyperventilating, her eyes wide open from the shock she is feeling. Both Assam and Orange Pekoe run to her, trying to calm her down. Jasmine, after handing the unconscious Crusader commander to the other girls, she limps towards Darjeeling. Kneeling besides her she tightly hugs her.

"Everything's going to be fine. You did nothing wrong Darjeeling, you just protected me," Jasmine says in a soft and soothing voice. Darjeeling can't do anything, but look at the ground, as tears start running from her eyes.

* * *

"After that incident, everything was quieter. Though we had other bandit groups come to attack us, most of them run away when they saw the tanks. Also, about two months after the incident we met the other school carriers and ended up helping each other, despite each one having their own territory. And two weeks ago, the people from R.I.J.A. appeared. I hope next time we speak will be on the carrier. Perhaps we could have some tea together. I am very curious of your adventures for these past two years. Yours sincerely, Darjeeling."

Putting the letter down, Odysseus takes some time to assimilate everything she has just read.

"They had it rough, huh?" Annabelle says, lifting her head from Odysseus' shoulder.

"Seems like it. Makes you wonder how different things would have been if we had stayed," Odysseus says, contemplating how differently the events would have transpired if she was there.

"We will never know unfortunately," Annabelle answers.

"You are right. Oh, almost forgot, I need to show you something. The boys have already seen it by the way." Odysseus says as stands up from the bench and stands a few meters away from Annabelle.

"What is it?" Annabelle asks curiously.

Saying nothing, Odysseus looks around to see if there is anyone else on the courtyard. Confirming that no other people are present, she closes her eyes.

Throwing her right arm sideways, a white scythe materializes in her hand, which is at least two meters tall. Opening her eyes, her right eye has a bright magenta color, but her left eye has a bright blue color, with a small, hazy blue fire escaping from it. The left side of her hair has also changed color from blonde to snowy white. Annabelle just looks with wide eyes, her brain refusing to acknowledge what she is seeing in front of her.

"O-Odysseus...j-just...just what is this?" she manages to stutter, being awestruck with what she is seeing.

"This...you could call it a piece...of my past," Odysseus says slowly with a sad smile, a single tear running from her left eye.

* * *

 **A/N: Another chapter has been completed! In the next one we will learn what happened at Kuromorimine. Maybe see what's going on at the Institute. Also, for the month of August I'll be visiting some relatives in my father's hometown, so expect chapters at a less frequent rate. A** **nyway, a** **s always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and** **there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**


	18. Chapter 18: Innocence Lost

**The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 18: Innocence Lost**

* * *

 **Blackout Main Base**

 **Central Courtyard**

 **27th of May 2 Y.A.**

 **7:45 am**

"Commander, I know how you feel about your sister, but is it necessary to look for her everywhere?"

"She wasn't in her room or in the cafeteria, which means she might be out of the base."

"That reminds me, did you really had to force open the door to her room?"

"Yes, it was necessary."

Two girls walk through the courtyard, making their way towards the base's main entrance in search of a person.

"But I have to say, there are a lot of girls at this base. Makes you wonder if they are girls from the school carriers here."

"I asked the Director about it and he said that Miho, her friends and the two Saint Gloriana students are the only personnel that has a connection with the carriers."

"Now that you mention it, what happened to Ooarai? We never made contact with their forces."

"I had asked Miho that question, when I arrived at this base for the first time, but she avoided answering me. There are other school ships missing, so what is the problem Erika?"

"You see, the problem is that we haven't seen a single soul from the other school ships, yet Miho is here with her friends. You think something might have happened Mah-I mean, commander?" Erika says, blushing lightly at her mistake.

"We aren't in the carrier right now, so you don't need to address me formally," Maho smiles to Erika, causing Erika to blush harder and avert her gaze.

"I-I insist that I address you formally commander," she says quickly. Maho giggles at her vice-commander's behavior.

"As you see fit," she responds back, a smirk on her face.

Reaching the main entrance, the two girls go and stand in front of a guardroom, where a man wearing Blackout's standard uniform is reading a magazine to pass his time, sitting on a chair. Noticing the girls, he quickly grabs a catalogue and a machine that looks like a scanner, before exiting the guardroom.

"Your names please," he says, eyeing the two girls with suspicion.

"Nishizumi Maho and Itsumi Erika," Maho responds.

Scanning the catalogue, he finds their names in the Guests list, so he relaxes his posture a bit. "Could you show me your Guest IDs for a moment?

The girls comply and show him their ID cards that hang from their necks.

Aiming the scanner-like machine at Maho's ID first, he waits a few moments, before it flashes green and shows Maho's information on a small built-in screen the machine has. Repeating the same process with Erika's ID, the machine flashes green, indicating that her ID is authentic.

"Everything seems fine, you may pass," he says as he goes inside the guardroom and presses a small red button that opens a steel door.

Passing through the door, the girls start walking towards an area, with a gut feeling that Miho should be there.

"Even if she is somewhere out of the base, how are we supposed to find her?" Erika asks, clearly not happy that she has to participate in this wild goose chase.

"If you are still tired Erika, you can always go back at the room. We still have time before our helicopter arrives to get us back to the carrier," Maho says as she scans the area for signs of the one they are looking for.

 _And let her hog you all by herself?! Not happening!_ is what she would like to say at her commander, but she now better than to do that.

"It's OK, I don't mind. My wounds are a bit better today too," she elects to say, placing her hand over her right side where she was shot.

Getting further from the base, the two girls spot a girl with jet black hair, holding a dagger made of semi-transparent energy colored ruby red. She uses the dagger to slash the air in front of her horizontally, vertically and diagonally again and again, indicating she is training.

"Who is this girl?" Erika asks, though Maho has already recognized her as her sister.

"It's Miho," she quietly says, eyeing Miho worryingly.

"Eh?" Erika asks, bewildered. "Miho does not have black hair..."

The girls approach her carefully, hoping to not disturb her from her training. By accident, Erika kicks a small rock, causing it to roll audibly for about half a meter.

Hearing the noise, Miho immediately pivots on her left foot and throws her dagger at the girls. Erika gasps as the dagger hovers in the air, millimeters away from piercing Maho's throat. Maho briefly looks at the dagger, before looking at her sister's ruby red eyes. Although her face betrays no emotions, Maho can feel adrenaline pumping in her veins, her heart rate starting to elevate.

"Good morning Miho," Maho says with a smile.

"Oh, it's you," Miho says with a sigh, which catches both Kuromorimine commanders in surprise.

 _Why did she sigh?_ Erika thinks to herself. _Does she want to kill us?!_

Stretching her right arm forwards, she clenches her fingers into a fist and moves it backwards, causing the dagger to move away from Maho and vanish.

Clenching the fingers of her left hand in a fist, it glows with a bright red light, which dims and vanishes after a few seconds.

Finally, closing her eyes and exhaling deeply, Miho's hair color slowly reverts to brown, before opening her eyes. Maho notices that they are also back to normal.

"Sorry about that, got startled a bit. Please accept these as an apology," Miho says apologetically with an awkward smile,raising her left arm. In the palm of her left hand sit two hairclips, one that resembles a Tiger I and one that resembles a Königstiger.

"No, it's fine. We were the ones that sneaked on you after all," Maho responds back with her trademarked stoic expression, picking the two hairclips and handing the Königstiger one to Erika, who reluctantly takes it.

 _How the hell is this fine?!_ Erika screams mentally, her instincts telling her not to voice her opinion right now, unless she wants to go in Heaven.

"Umm, where did you find these?" Erika asks Miho, eyeing the hairclip.

"I just made them," she responds, which prompts the two girls to look at her with a confused expression.

"And how did you made them?" Maho asks slowly.

"With my powers. I can create very small objects, like these hairclips, but they require a lot of energy," she says, causing Maho and Erika to look at her like they are seeing an alien.

Miho giggles nervously; their expression is something she sort of expects.

"Miho, could you explain how your powers work? And...how you got them?" Maho asks with a stoic expression, yet inside her she feels guilt, as if she is the one responsible about this.

"I can try explaining it, but I doubt you would believe me," Miho says.

"Please Miho," Maho says softly.

Contemplating on how to best describe her powers, Miho decides to tell them what she had read from the document Anzu had given her. "My powers are fueled from an energy known as Ether. This energy exists between realities and has the property of manipulating one. Those hairclips I gave you is such an example. They didn't exist in our world, yet you can clearly see them. By using Ether I made them a solid object, an existence in this world. At least that's what Mako told me. Ether can be manipulated subconsciously by the mind, give it form and make it usable, but you need to have a specific genetic makeup," Miho stops at that, noticing the confused expressions of both Maho and Erika.

"I'm sorry Miho, but I can't understand completely what you are saying," Maho says with an apologetic expression.

"It all sounds so surreal. What you are describing is magic and honestly, it makes it all the more difficult to believe what you are saying is true," Erika says.

"No, it's understandable. Then let me demonstrate my powers one more time."

Miho closes her eyes and activates her powers, causing her hair to become black and her eyes red. Opening the palm of her right hand and raising it at the level of her face, a semi-transparent ruby red energy starts being collected there, forming a ball that floats above her palm.

"This is Ether that my brain has given form to. As you can see, I can give it any form I desire," she says, while causing the ball of energy to change shapes, forming a book, then a flower and even a miniature Tiger 1. Maho and Erika look in awe at the ever changing shape of the ball. Creating the shape of a kunai knife, the energy becomes solid and a black kunai knife drops in her palm.

"When I give it the shape I want, it materializes. Also, these objects can have effects, like in games." Grabbing the kunai knife, Miho throws it in the distance about 50 meters away. Landing on the ground and piercing it, a huge pillar of ruby red energy, that has a diameter of 80 meters, shoots in the sky, reaching a height of about 500 meters. Both Maho and Erika look at the pillar in amazement, their eyes wide open at this majestic, yet frightening display of power.

"As you saw, this knife had the effect of releasing an energy pillar that decimates everything caught inside it. It took me about three seconds to create the knife and five seconds to charge it. The more powerful the effect is and the more complicated or big the object you want to create is, the more time you need to charge and construct it respectively."

Reverting back to normal, she notices that Erika is really pale. "Are you alright Erika? I'm sorry if I scared you," Miho smiles apologetically.

"No, it's fine, don't worry about me," Erika responds back, though her voice is barely audible.

 _I better be on my best behavior!_ she makes a mental note to herself.

"You said before that for a person to utilize this energy, they need to have a genetic makeup. Does that mean you always had it?" Maho asks curiously.

"No," Miho explains. "You see...Mother put me to participate in an experiment. A scientist named Mannheim had created a DNA altering liquid named Serum, which alters one's genetic makeup to be able to utilize Ether. I got injected with that liquid and that's how I acquired my powers."

Maho says nothing, keeping up her calm expression, but inside she is brimming with anger.

 _How dare she_...Maho thinks to herself.

"Admittedly," Miho continues, oblivious to her sister's feelings. "Mother didn't know about the true nature of the experiment and once she found out about it, she made sure it would be shut down for good. So please Sister, don't hold her or yourself responsible for this,"

Miho smiles at Maho, who feels all her anger just vanishing away.

"Can I ask you a question Sister?" Miho asks Maho, wanting to change the subject and perhaps sate her curiosity.

"These two years that we have been apart, what happened? With the carrier I mean. I never got the chance to ask you and am curious about it."

"It's a long story and I don't know if we have enough time until our helicopter arrives," Erika says.

"You'll go back to the carrier?" Miho asks with a sad expression.

"Yes. There are certain things we must attend to," Maho says uncomfortably.

Not wanting to dwell any deeper, she waits for Maho to start narrating the events that happened in the carrier.

"I'll start with what happened one week after the earthquakes. We were in sea and running low on fuel."

* * *

 **One week after the earthquakes**

 **Aboard the Graf Zeppelin**

 **Kuromorimine Girls High School**

 **Principal's office**

Inside the principal's office are two figures. Behind a large desk sits a man with a thick mustache, reading some documents. In front of the desk stands a girl with dark brown hair and eyes, wearing Kuromorimine's Senshadou uniform.

"Thank you for coming commander Nishizumi," the man, presumably the principal, says in his grizzled voice.

"May I know the reason why I was summoned principal?" Maho says with a stoic expression.

Putting down the documents, he looks at Miho with a serious expression. "As you have heard, the government has collapsed, along with any laws or morals. As a result, in the big cities there has been a large increase in the numbers of bandits and looters. The JSDF is nowhere to be found and chaos reigns everywhere."

"What have these things to do with the Senshadou club?" Maho asks with suspicion, not liking where this conversation goes.

"The carrier is running low on fuel. Right now we are en route to the nearest deep port," he says slowly, having a severe look on his face.

"But that would mean we would have to concern ourselves with possible bandits or looters attacking us. Wait, you don't mean?" Maho says bewildered, guessing what he is asking of her to do.

"Unfortunately I do. Nishizumi Maho, as the director of the carrier and the school's principal, I order you to defend the carrier's main entrance and the fuel pump during the refueling of it."

"You are asking me to order these girls to take human lives, principal?" Maho asks, brimming quietly with anger.

"Ideally, we won't encounter any bandits, but we all know better than that. You have your orders, you may go now," the man sighs, before going back to reading documents about the status of the carrier.

Maho says nothing and walks towards the door, exiting the room.

 _Is this man out of his mind!?_ she thinks, clenching her right hand so hard that her fingernails dig in her skin and blood starts dripping. _He wants me to order the girls to kill humans?!_

"Commander?"

Hearing a voice calling her, she snaps out of her thoughts and looks around to see who called her.

"Hello, Erika," she answers back, regaining her composure.

"So, what did the princ-is your hand alright?" Erika asks urgently, eyeing the blood stained hand.

"Hm? Oh it's fine, don't worry about it. Erika, gather the Senshadou club members immediately. I have an announcement to make," Maho says calmly.

"Eh? Ah, as you order commander!" Erika snaps a salute, before walking away to gather the members of the Senshadou club. Maho looks at her bloodied hand, trying to understand in what new world have they all found themselves. What hell awaits them at the end of the road.

* * *

 **Three days later**

"I'll go over the plan one more time. Team A will defend the ramp that leads at the carrier's entrance, while Team B will drive all the way to the other side of the dock to defend the fuel pump. The scouts will be stationed further in the port to alert us in case the enemy makes a move. You are to deter anyone that approaches the carrier or the pump by firing warning shots. The rest shall remain here in the hangar and support any retreating units," Maho says over the radio, looking at the tanks that have amassed behind her from her Tiger's cupola.

A flurry of affirmatives is heard from the various commanders, some nervous, some eager to roll out there.

"Everyone, advance!" she says and the tanks come to life, their engines roaring and their treads clacking. Exiting the service hangar that every carrier has, Maho thinks how convenient this is in case they need to retreat, since the entrance to the service hangar is at the same height as the dock.

"Team A, line up!" she says through her radio and her Tiger I, along with Erika's Tiger II the Elephant and the Jagdtiger line up in a straight line. "Team B, you are free to proceed to the target area. Panther 5,you have command of the team. Scouts, go to your predetermined positions," Maho says and seven tanks in total advance, two Panzer IIs and five Panthers.

"You think everything will be fine?" Erika asks.

"We can only hope they will be. Team A advance for 50 meters!" she orders and the tanks start moving slowly.

 _"Command, this Scout A, we are in position."_

 _"This is Scout B, we are in position and awaiting further orders."_

 _"This is Team B, we reached the fuel pump."_

"Affirmative, await for further instructions," Maho says on the radio, before terminating the transmission. _Let's hope we won't have to fight anyone, however unlucky this might be_ , Maho thinks, praying the girls won't have to kill anyone today.

* * *

 **Two hours later**

"Scouts, this is Command, situation report."

 _"Command, this is Scout A. Everything seems fine for the moment."_

 _"This is Scout B. We have spotted several civilian vehicles passing through the area, but none have come closer than 200 meters from our position. We may have been spotted."_

"Affirmative Scout B. Both of you keep your guard up. If you see any hostiles, retreat to the carrier immediately."

"Affirmative Command."

Ending the transmission, Maho sighs loudly, closing her eyes and taking some deep breaths.

"Are you okay commander?" Erika asks worryingly.

"Yes. It's just the pressure of not knowing what will happen that bothers me," she answers, pinching the bridge of her nose.

 _"Command, this is the captain of the carrier. The refueling process is nearly complete, you may begin to withdraw,"_ a female voice says. Hearing this, Maho smiles, ready to order the units to fall back to the carrier.

 _"Command, this is Scout A, we see at least 20 civilian vehicles loaded with armed men or machine-guns moving towards the carrier," she hears a voice say through the radio._

 _"Command, this is Scout B! We are under attack from hostiles, at least 30 civilian vehicles with armed men or machine-guns! Evasive maneuvers, they have rockets!"_ she hears the commander of the Panzer II scream as explosions and bullets bouncing can be heard in the background.

"All units, retreat immediately to the carrier! Team A, advance 500 meters and support the retreating units. Everyone, you have permission to shoot to kill!" she orders through the radio, knowing that with such numbers, the enemy is serious at invading the carrier. As Team A advances to support the retreating tanks, Team B starts falling back to the carrier, linking with Scout B, who managed to shake off its pursuers.

 _"This is Scout A, entering your field of vision now,"_ the commander of the other Panzer II says, as the tank pops in view from behind a container, approaching Team A.

"We see you Scout A. Retreat back to the carrier. To the units that are in the hangar, I want two Tiger Is, a Tiger II and two Jagdpanthers to come and reinforce us, enemy forces have been reported to be at least 50 units in total," she calmly says over the radio.

As they wait for the reinforcements, civilian pick-up trucks start popping into view. Some of them are loaded with people holding assault rifles or RPGs and others have HMGs welded on their beds.

"To all tanks, prepare for bombardment," Maho orders.

Waiting for the trucks to come close enough, everything seem to slow down for a moment. Her mind starts thinking a lot of different things as she utters the word _Fire_. Who is she to order others to take lives? To bathe their hands in blood, when she just sits comfortably on the commander's seat and looks at the battlefield. She can see the shells slowly flying to the trucks, which only now realize what is going to happen and start to turn, though a little bit too late. She knows, when these shells land on their targets, there is no going back for them. What would her mother tell her if she could see her now? What Miho would tell her? Her mind now drifts on her younger sister. Is she okay? Does she have to fight for her life too? Does she have to kill to survive too? Maho shudders at the thought, praying she won't have to hear her sister uttering the words _I have taken lives,_ because her heart would plummet in guilt and sadness. Because her innocence is too precious to be lost, especially in a world like this.

As the shells hit their targets, time returns to normal, and four explosions rock the port, as four trucks become flaming wrecks. Machine-guns from both sides start rattling, the trucks becoming pieces of metal Swiss cheese one after another. Miho dives back in the tank and closes the cupola's hatch to make sure no bullet strikes her.

More explosions rock the port, as RPG warheads start flying everywhere, barely missing the tanks.

"Team B, where are you?" Maho yells, looking through the vision ports at the increasing number of vehicles and infantry.

 _"Command, this is Panther 5, we are in your three o'clock. I propose that we use the crossfire as a diversion to retreat back to the carrier."_

"Agreed Panther 5,"Maho says quickly. "Team A, start moving backwards!"

As the tanks start moving backwards, some of the trucks try to flank them, only to crash into the reinforcements and get annihilated. Team B flanks the enemy forces form their left, throwing them into disarray. Using this chance, Team B, along with the Panzer II start heading to the carrier at full speed, though Panther 5 stays back to provide support fire. Suddenly another 30 trucks, the ones that Scout B had spotted, appear.

"To all units, fall back to the carrier immediately!" Maho yells at the radio and all tanks turn and start heading for the service hangar at full speed.

"Just how many trucks these guys have?!" Erika yells, eyeing the ant-like enemy forces that seem to have no end.

All tanks enter the service hangar, but when Maho's Tiger passes, an explosion destroys the ramp that connected the hangar with the dock.

"Is everyone on board?!" she yells, seeing the destroyed ramp slowly sinking in the water.

"Panther 5 isn't here!" someone yells, causing Maho to become pale.

"Panther 5 come in!" she says in the radio, praying for an answer.

 _"This is Panther 5, we didn't made it on the ramp, what's our orders?!"_ the commander of the Panther says, as rockets fly past its turret.

"Hold on until we open another door of the hangar or we find a spare ramp!" she says, before noticing the ship is slowly moving away from the dock.

"Change frequency to the carrier's bridge now!" she orders quickly and the radio operator changes the frequencies.

"Captain, this is commander Nishizumi! Stop the carrier right now, we still have girls on the dock!"

 _"I'm sorry commander, but I have orders from the principal to leave the port immediately."_

"But we cannot leave them behind!" she yells hotly.

 _"It's okay commander, we understand. We will find a way to survive. We are Kuromorimine students after all!"_ the commander of Panther 5 says, before terminating her transmission. "Panther 5 come in! Panther 5!" she yells on the radio, but only static greets her. Maho just slumps on her seat, anger filling her. Slamming her radio on the side of the turret, she lets its broken pieces to fall on the floor of the tank. No one dares to talk, though some of the girls audibly cry, both because they had to leave behind some of their fellow classmates and because of Maho's outburst.

 _I'll get you for that principal,_ she thinks, gripping what remains of the radio as hard as she can.

* * *

 **Four days later**

Inside his office, the principal is sitting behind his desk, once again reading and signing documents about the status of the carrier. Though they had successfully refueled the ship, rumors of some students getting left behind were circulating, making an increasing number of students to question the principal's actions. Some of them even started undermining his authority. He would have to deal with it eventually, but first, he would have to silence the Senshadou club. Not kill them of course, they are too valuable to do that. Maybe keep them on a lease by blackmailing them or something similar. Maybe he could find some dirt on the commander and vice-commander. After all, they were the ones that gave orders to the rest of the members. These girls were no longer high school girls. In this world, they were assets. You could even call them soldiers, since they know how to operate a tank, a formidable machine at this new world, where governments have collapsed and everyone can do whatever they want.

As the man is absorbed in his own thoughts, an explosion is heard behind him, with chunks of the wall flying everywhere, like deadly shrapnel. The man gets thrown over the desk, covered in concrete dust, blood flowing from some grazes in his hands, his clothes ripped in some areas.

Below, at the center of the school's courtyard lies motionless a Tiger with the number 212 painted on the sides of its turret. The cannon is pointing at the now non-existent wall of the principal's office, spewing gunpowder smoke from the barrel. Several girls start gathering at the courtyard, wondering what is the thundering sound that was heard mere moments ago.

The principal lies on the floor, groaning and moaning in pain as he tries to stand up. The door to his office opens and inside come five girls, dressed in their Senshadou uniforms.

"You," he growls, coughing a little blood on the floor. "What do you think you are doing Nishizumi?!"

"Relieving you of your duties principal. I'll assume control of the carrier from now on," Maho says calmly.

"You can't do that, I am the one in charge here!" he tries to shout, but starts coughing mid-sentence. "I'll have you all arrested for attempted murder!" he says, though the serious expressions on the five girls' faces don't waver a bit.

"Principal, with all due respect, not only did you order indirectly the girls of the Senshadou club to claim human lives, you even abandoned five of them. If someone is to be arrested, it is you," Erika says calmly, though her trembling right fist suggests otherwise.

"Sacrifices had to be made! Our carrier was in danger of being overrun by the bandits!"

"Do you think the girls would care? Do you think the parents of the girls you abandoned would care? You should consider yourself lucky. Should your action be made publicly known, you'll be lynched. We came here to give you a choice. Get in a lifeboat and hope you find land or get beaten to death by an angry mob. It's your choice," Maho smirks at the man, who just glares from the floor of the office.

"You think you can boss me around? I am the one in charge, I am the one you should obey. In this new world, in this...Apocalypse, you are nothing more than assets!" the man yells, having lost all sense of reasoning.

"If I were in your place, I would be careful of the words my mouth utters," Maho says dangerously.

The word "assets" clearly has made all five nervous. Even the girls who gathered moments ago outside of the principal's office have heard him loud and clear, and are fuming with indignance.

The man can see the killing intent on the eyes of the girls, especially the other three that came with Maho and Erika. The girls have already killed people. What's one more life?

Maho walks towards the man, stepping on broken glass, metal shrapnel and chunks of concrete. "So what's your choice?" she asks the man, standing in front of him and looking down at him. The man audibly gulps, before uttering his answer.

* * *

 **One hour later**

In the courtyard of the school, on top of the Tiger's turret with the number 212 painted on the its sides, stands Maho with a loudspeaker on her right hand. Erika, along with the rest of the girls that were with her, stand in front of the tank in attention. In front of them is the principal standing on his knees, his hands tied. By now, most of the school's students have gathered on the Tiger to see what is going on.

"Kuromorimine students, I, Nishizumi Maho, overall commander of the Senshadou club have an announcement to make," she says through the loudspeaker, the crowd of girls instantly starting to whisper.

"Do you thing it has to do with the principal?"

"I heard they attacked him."

"Really?But why do something like that."

"I heard that the principal left behind in the port five members of the Senshadou club."

"I heard they chose to stay behind to defend the carrier while it was leaving port."

"You think they'll kill him?"

"They would never do something like that"

"But they have allr-"

"Silence!" Erika shouts and the crowd instantly seizes whispering.

"As of now, the Senshadou club has control of the carrier," Maho says calmly and the crowd starts whispering again.

"Excuse me, but why would the Senshadou club seize control of the carrier?" one of the students asks in concern.

"The man you see in front of you has been relieved of his duties as director of the carrier. Four days ago, during the defense of the carrier from the bandits, one of the Panthers that were retreating, was unable to make it on the carrier. Despite this, he ordered the captain to immediately withdraw, leaving the girls, your fellow classmates behind!"

At this a lot of girls start glaring daggers at the principal, whispers once again starting to echo among the crowd.

"Not only that, but he called the members of the Senshadou club assets! What stops him from calling you too that?"

Retrieving a small recorder, she presses the play button and the recorder plays the principal's dialogue with the girls in his office.

Stunned silence overtakes the crowd. Then, an uproar rises from it.

"Did you hear that?"

"He called them assets!"

"So we are sacrificial pawns?"

"Does that mean he would do the same to everyone in the carrier?"

"I can't believe he would leave students behind!"

As the girls get more and more rowdy, some of them start yelling at the principal, demanding he atones for his crimes.

"As fellow classmates and friends, we will let you decide his fate. Let him live and have him off the carrier on a life boat?" Or execute him for his crimes?" she says, first raising her left hand, then her right one.

"What?! You told me I had a choice!" the principal yells.

"Yes, but that concerned us, not the rest of the girls," Erika grins at the man, who gets paler by the second. Though in a twist of events, most girls choose to let him live.

"Then that's all for now," Maho says, getting down of the tank. "Get him to the life boats," she orders the girls, who happily drag him towards them.

As the crowd starts breaking, Koume can hear some girls whispering.

"This is unfair, it's clearly a coup!"

"They just want power! We should be the ones to wield it!"

"Even if the principal said and did these questionable things, the way the Senshadou club intervened is unethical. They need to be brought down of their position."

Koume can't do anything, but hope that these whispers stay as such and don't grow. There has been enough blood spilled already, they don't need fellow classmates hurting each other.

* * *

"After that-"

"Excuse me commander, but our helicopter has arrived," Erika interrupts Maho as a Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 flies over the base, descending from the sky to land in one of the unoccupied helipads that exist next to the Administrative building.

"I see. I'll continue the story some other time Miho," Maho says apologetically.

As Maho and Erika start walking towards the now landed helicopter, Miho runs behind her sister.

"S-Sister, do you mind if I accompany you to the helicopter?" Miho fidgets in where she stands, not wanting to part ways with her sister yet.

"Of course not Miho," Maho says with a smile.

As the three girls walk towards the helicopter, Miho and Maho quietly converse, though Maho seems to tease Miho about boys, since she is both an adult now and pretty popular on the base. Miho just blushes, but does enjoy the chat with her sister.

Erika stays silent, watching the two sisters speak. Although she feels jealous that Miho has her commander's full attention, she does feel relieved for her commander. Ever since the earthquakes, she had been so serious. It was like she had forgotten how to smile, how to feel happiness. Her mind drifts to the days when her commander would just stay in her room sometimes, silently crying and quietly muttering her sister's name.

Now though, she is actually and genuinely smiling, which makes Erika smile too.

Arriving at the helicopter, its rotors have stopped spooling, silently sitting on the helipad.

Erika opens the door to the cabin and enters, sitting in one of the empty seats. The rotors slowly start rotating and long before they start picking up wind.

"Sister, will you come by again?" Miho shouts over the wind with an almost pleading face.

"I will Miho, don't worry. And you are welcome to come by Kuromorimine whenever you want. You are still a part of it," Maho shouts, smiling at her younger sister.

Miho hugs her sister tightly, tears rolling from her eyes. "Please, be careful. I don't want to lose you again," Miho whispers loudly enough for Maho to hear her, tightening her hug even more.

"Don't worry Miho I will. Be careful too," Maho says, patting her sister's head, before kissing her in the forehead. Miho reluctantly unhugs Maho, wiping her tears. Normally Erika would feel jealous over the attention Miho gets from her commander, but seeing them both together...she can only feel sadness and pity. Two sisters that finally met after so long, after they had to face and overcome so many hardships, after they had to make tough choices and lose a small part of themselves, once again must get separated by fate.

Maho bids farewell to her sister and enters the cabin, closing its door.

As the helicopter takes off, Erika can see Maho's facade rapidly crumbling, as her face is buried between her hands, tears flowing on her cheeks at an alarming rate. The one thing that she wanted her sister to retain, her innocence, is long gone. At first, she didn't want to believe that Miho had to take lives to survive, but after yesterday, a huge weight had been placed on her shoulders. And now, this weight had finally managed to make her kneel, to crack her spirit, even if by little.

"I'm sorry Miho...as your older sister I have failed you. I couldn't protect you from this world. Please, forgive me," Maho whispers, her tears seeping through her fingers and unto her uniform's skirt. Erika can do nothing, but pray she will get over it. Unfortunately, this is something she can't help her commander with.

As Miho looks at the fleeing figure of the helicopter, she looks with a saddened face. _Sister,_ is the only thing she can think, tears rolling once again on her cheeks. Maho might fool someone else, but Miho knows. She knows her true feelings. Her guilt, her remorse, her sadness. She feels the same.

"Miss Nishizumi, the director has requested for you," a soldier says to Miho. "Okay," she replies, quickly wiping her cheeks and eyes, before turning and saluting the man, who salutes her back in response.

Looking at the sky one more time, she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, before making her way to the Director's office.

* * *

 **A/N: Another chapter has been completed! Since it is 2:30 AM here, I shall leave my nonsense commentary for another time.** **A** **nyway, a** **s always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and** **there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**


	19. Chapter 19: Small Beginnings

**A/N:** **The speed might be high, but the quality I feel it's meh. It makes me happy to know that I can portray their emotions realistically. Though I don't know how much the readers do sympathize with the characters. Also, you do T need to apologize for anything, or feel that what you wrote is an insult towards me and my capability as a writer. Quite the opposite, I fear that my writing might be insulting to the readers if I am honest.**

 **Let's get this chapter started now!**

* * *

 **The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 19: Small Beginnings**

* * *

 **Laboratory S-18**

 **Location Unknown**

 **27th of May 2 Y.A**.

"I'll ask you one more time, what did you told them?"

"I-I told you...y-you won't g-urk!"

"We ain't leaving this room until you talk."

Inside a room painted white are two figures. One figure sits tied on a chair that is bolted on the floor. Her clothes are caked with dried blood, torn in some places and exposing her delicate soft skin that is now full of bruises, her once shining reddish brown hair disheveled and full of grime.

"I'll never...betray my friends," the girl says, her voice barely audible. In front of her stands a very tall man, at least 2 meters tall. Though he seems to be a bit too thin for his height, he's actually really strong.

"Your friends have already told us everything, what will you achieve with your feeble resistance?" the man says, punching the girl on her right cheek.

The girl grunts in response, her strength barely enough to remain conscious. Spitting some blood, she looks the man on his eyes with her own two, though her left eyelid is too bloated to open. "Yuzu and Momo would never betray me, even if it meant death," she says, coughing blood mid-sentence.

"Let's see for how long you can keep acting tough," the man says. Unseathing his knife, he stabs the girl's right hand, the blade piercing through it and pinning it on the chair's arm. The girl screams in pain, as fresh blood starts flowing from the chair's arm down on the floor.

"Aleksey, that is enough," a man with blonde hair and blue eyes speaks in German accented English. He wears black pants and a blue shirt. He also wears a white lab coat, his hands inside its pockets.

"Dr. Mannheim, she won't say anything. Should we call Henry?" Aleksey suggests, his face completely expressionless.

"No. This boy will kill her long before she breaks and talks," Mannheim replies, walking towards the girl.

"Miss Kadotani, I believe it's in your best interest that you reveal to us what you leaked to your friends," Mannheim says with a smile. "Or else your friends will suffer." His tone becomes dark, his expression changing to a serious one.

"She will come...and when she finds out about this, nothing will save you," Anzu says in a hoarse voice, her head hanging limply. "This is your end Mannheim," she whispers, finally fainting from her wounds and exhaustion.

"What do we do now?" Aleksey asks Mannheim.

"Let her be for now. When the time comes, we will ask her again," Mannheim says. Raising his right hand, greenish white colored energy starts seeping out of it and slowly making its way to Anzu. Covering Anzu's body, the energy shines brightly for a brief moment, before vanishing.

"Consider it a reward for bringing Subject 23 here," Mannheim smiles, putting his hand back to the lab coat's pocket.

"What do you mean bringing Subject 23 here?" Aleksey asks.

"It's of no importance to you. Come now," he says, walking towards the exit of the room. Aleksey too exits the room, following Mannheim.

Hearing the door closing, Anzu raises her head slowly, looking around the now empty room. Finding no one, she raises her left hand, the ropes that have been keeping it tied on the chair cut from the underside.

"Are you atoning for your sins, or you are you planning something?" Anzu smirks. Grabbing the knife that has pierced her right hand, she readies herself to pull it out.

"What's your endgame Mannheim?" she grunts, as she pulls the knife out of her right hand. The shearing pain she feels is intolerable and she nearly faints for real this time, as her vision goes almost black and a high-pitched ringing noise grasps her ears. Using the knife she unlodged, she cuts her remaining restraints.

Standing up and taking a step forward, her legs instantly give in, crashing on the ground. Groaning and clenching her teeth in response from the pain of the exacerbated injuries, a light starts shining from the center of her chest. It gradually expands to cover her whole body and starts glowing even more brightly. Anzu can feel the pain getting washed away, and looking down at her body, she sees the bruises shrinking and vanishing one by one. Her left eyelid starts healing and soon enough, she is able to see from her left eye again. Raising her right hand, she feels the gap that the knife created in it, closing.

"Good as new," she smiles, flexing her fingers to see if they move properly. Standing up once again, she feels her whole body light as a feather, renewed with strength. Looking down on her body, she frowns a bit. "He can heal wounds, but can't repair clothes?" she sighs, noticing her torn uniform. Picking the knife that lays on the ground, she twirls it a bit in her hand.

 _First, I need to find Yuzu and Momo. Then to free our friends,_ she notes mentally, eyeing the room's only entrance.

Approaching the metal door, she carefully opens it and comes face to face with one of the soldiers the base has. Both stand motionless, looking at each other's face, though Anzu looks at the orange lights the soldier's helmet has to indicate where the eyes are.

Not thinking about it twice, she pulls the soldier from his uniform and trips him over her right foot. As the man falls to the ground, Anzu closes the door and then shoves her left knee at his back, before thrusting the knife with both hands at the base of the man's neck. His movements instantly seize and blood starts oozing out of the deep wound she inflicted him. Retracting the knife, Anzu sighs a little. _That was really close,_ she thinks.

"Now, let's see what's inside this helmet," she murmurs as she removes the soldier's helmet and puts it on her head. A Heads Up Display boots up, showing various information about the surrounding environment. Looking at the bottom right of the HUD, she spots a mini map of the whole place. _Nice, now I can find where Yuzu and Momo are,_ she thinks, grinning under the helmet. _Yuzu, Momo, hang in there._

* * *

Reaching the Director's office, Miho salutes the two guards that stand in front of the two big wooden doors, who salute her back. Opening the doors, Miho enters inside the office, where a couple of familiar faces stand. On the right side of the room stand the members of the Anglerfish, on the left the members of the Antelope and in front of the office desk, Odysseus and Yuki. Though Odysseus is fine, Yuki is bandaged on her chest and her left hand is on cast.

"Miporin, you are late!" Saori scolds Miho, standing next to Mako and Hana.

"Sorry Saori, I was saying goodbye to my sister," Miho responds.

"Miss Nishizumi, welcome. If you may," the Director, who sits behind the desk, says, gesturing at where Odysseus and Yuki stand.

Miho quickly falls in place, saluting the Director.

"At ease, all of you," he says and everyone relaxes their posture a bit.

"May I ask why you called us here sir?" Yuki asks.

"Of course. I called you all here to inform you of a new branch of Blackout that will be created."

"A new branch?" Miho asks, while everyone looks with a surprised look.

"My guess is that the branch has to do with all the Ether stuff they told us yesterday in the evening," Tyler whispers to Reiji and Annabelle.

"It is possible that this new branch will be composed by people with powers. That's why he called us here, probably," Reiji whispers back.

"But that would mean we won't be able to be with them...I really don't want to be apart from Odysseus," Annabelle blurts out, her face growing sad.

"I don't think we will be. If he isolates them from their squads, he risks lowering both their and our morale. Plus, we are tank crews, it's really difficult to get replaced, so he risks lowering efficiency as well," Reiji voices his opinion to the rest of his team.

"I hope so," Annabelle mutters.

"Everything's going to be fine, no one will take your lover away," Tyler jokes to lighten Annabelle's gloomy mood.

"Very funny Tyler," Annabelle pouts, though no one notices the light blush on her cheeks.

"Why now, though? Does it have to do with our powers?" Odysseus asks.

"Yes. Thanks to the information Miss Nishizumi provided us with, we have come to the conclusion that more people with the ability to use Ether must exist, therefore there may be a time when we will need to deal with them," the Director says, causing everyone except the three girls standing in front of his desk to become nervous.

"So...this branch will be tasked with dealing with people that can use Ether," Miho comments.

"Exactly. That's why this branch will be independent from Blackout."

"What do you mean independent?" Yuki asks.

"This branch will be operating on its own. It will still be supplied with resources from Blackout, but if it wants to expand, it will have to make its own money."

"Can I ask something?" Saori says, raising her hand too for added emphasis.

"Of course," the Director says, turning his head to face her.

"Who is gonna be directing this new branch?" Saori asks curiously.

"I was getting on that part now. Nishizumi Miho, Elpida Papaioannou and Yuki Konoka, I appoint you Directors of the Ether Force branch of Blackout."

"What?!" everyone gasps in surprise, with Odysseus laughing loudly and even the Director chuckling a bit at the surprised looks of everyone.

"Old man, you sure know how to surprise someone!" Odysseus manages to say between her laughs.

"Does that mean Miss Nishizumi won't be with us from now on?!" Yukari asks urgently, causing the rest of the girls to also look at the man.

"Don't worry, the whole squad will be part of the department."

"Sir, didn't you say that we will be assigned as Directors of the branch?" Miho asks, perplexed at his use of the word "department".

"Yes, but there is only one department on the branch for now."

"You mean there could be more?" Yuki intersects.

"That's up to you to decide. Also, due to the nature of your powers, you will have your own facilities, though they will take some time to be built. That's all for now, you are dismissed."

Everyone salutes(except for a certain blonde), before exiting the office. As both teams walk on the hallway that connects the office with the stairs, Yuki hugs Miho with her right hand. "I missed you!" Yuki cries, burying her face on Miho's left arm.

"Thats not fair. Miss Nishizumi is my friend, don't try to take her away from me!" Yukari shouts, hugging Miho's right hand.

"Remove your hands Oddball!" Yuki snarls.

"Remove yours, snowman!" Yukari growls.

"Girls, both of you stop!" Miho commands them sternly and both deflate like balloons, not happy they have to share Miho with each other.

Meanwhile, Saori chats with Tyler, Annabelle talks to Reiji and Hana keeps Mako at bay from making any comments about Saori.

"You shouldn't bring Saori in an uncomfortable position Mako," Hana says with a smile.

"She deserves it. She always wakes me up early in the morning," Mako grumbles.

"She is doing it for you Mako," Hana says.

Mako murmurs something inaudible, before sighing in defeat. "Fiiine, but only for today," Mako drones. Hana giggles lightly at that.

"Miho, can I ask you something?" Odysseus says grabbing Miho's left shoulder to stop her. The moment she touches her shoulder though, their powers activate and the air around them starts to violently flow outwards, causing everyone to get pinned in the walls.

"What is going on?!" Annabelle yells over the wind.

"Miss Nishizumi!" Yukari yells, trying to move her arms and legs.

"Something's wrong here!" Reiji shouts, eyeing Miho and Odysseus, who look at each other intently, like they have a staring contest,where the one who blinks first, dies.

"You don't say!" Tyler yells.

"We need to do something!" Hana shouts at the others, as she sees a black wolf materializing behind Miho and a two-meter tall figure that resembles a Grim Reaper materializing behind Odysseus. Both of them have changed to their Ether forms. Intense killing intent escape from their gazes, red and blue energy swirling around them as the colors clash with each other.

By now, both the guards that are stationed outside the Director's office and the Director himself have managed to approach the girls to a certain distance, having heard the commotion.

Yuki clenches her teeth and activates her powers, a bright golden rune glowing on the back of her right hand. "Inner Peace!" she yells and closes her eyes. A picture of her surroundings forms in her mind with white lines indicating the boundaries of everything around her.

 _What is this?!_ she gasps, as she notices worm-like creatures snaking all around Miho and Odysseus. On each one's back of the neck is connected a worm, like it has bitten straight to their spines.

 _Maybe if I detach these things, Miho and Elpida will go back to normal,_ she thinks, but before she can mark these worms, she feels the picture getting more and more blurry. Opening her eyes, she feels her whole body aching. _Why now of all times?!_ she curses. Due to her injuries, most of her power is being used to heal them faster, so her body cannot handle her powers for a long period of time.

"They are being controlled by something!" Yuki manages to shout, panting heavily from exhaustion.

"What do you mean they are controlled by something?!" Saori screams.

"I don't see anything that could control them though!" Hana says, inspecting both Miho and Odysseus.

The wolf starts growling, approaching Miho slowly. Suddenly it leaps and grabs Miho's neck, dragging her down on the ground. The Reaper swings its scythe vertically and a thin wave of blue energy shoots towards the girls, passing perfectly from their necks.

Both Miho and Odysseus grab their necks, groaning in pain. Two huge worm-like creatures, not unlike the ones Yuki saw, pop into view. Both of them get split in two by the energy wave, their halves falling to the ground, twitching. The air instantly stops moving and the energies that clashed with each other vanish. Everyone that was pinned to the walls by the air falls to the ground, some of them groaning and trying to stand up.

"Sir, you need to immediately evacuate!" one of the guards says to the Director.

"No. Things are going to get very interesting now," he says, as a figure slowly approaches from the other end of the hallway.

"Nicely done. I didn't expect you to find me so quickly."

Everyone turns their heads at the origin of the voice and find a middle-aged woman standing a few meters away from the two teams. She has long black hair and ruby red eyes. She wears a white T-shirt and a miniskirt, along with black pantyhose and black boots. Besides her is a huge black centipede standing up at the same height as the middle-aged woman.

"Wh-What is this?" Saori shrieks, getting pale when she looks at the black centipede.

"Sc-Scary!" Mako says in a quivering voice, cowering and shivering behind Hana.

"Anyone has bug spray with them?" Tyler jokes, due to the adrenaline that is coursing through his body.

Everyone is on edge as they gaze at this new enemy, who pats the black centipede on the top of its head.

"You did pretty good at spotting my little pets..." she says softly, as she hugs the centipede lovingly. "...but I cannot let you live," she continues, her expression changing to an angry one. Everyone gets up and starts walking backwards, eyeing the centipede and the woman for any movements.

"I'll start with the one that managed to find me and my pets," the woman declares and the centipede shoots forward to attack Yuki, who is still lying on the ground, her body too weak to stand on its own.

An inhuman scream is heard, as the centipede gets pinned on the wall next to Yuki by an energy spear colored ruby red. The centipede starts flailing around, before three more spears hit it. As it lays motionless on the wall, slimy green blood starts oozing from its fatal wounds.

"Do you know how much time it takes to raise one?" the woman scowls, not happy with the loss of one of her pets.

"I don't know who you are, but I won't allow you to hurt my friends," Miho says, summoning an energy dagger at her right hand.

"Don't leave me out of the fun," Odysseus says rather emotionlessly, summoning a white scythe on her right hand too.

"You think you can beat me, my little lambs?" the woman says seductively. Eyeing Reiji and Tyler who are dragging Yuki away from the oncoming battle, one of her pets, a worm-like creature this time, peeks out of her miniskirt and starts running towards the boys, growing from the size of a small dog to a human's in seconds. Miho swings her dagger horizontally and a thin wave of energy shoots outwards in a cone, cutting the worm in two pieces.

"Our turn," Miho says, flashstepping next to the woman and hitting her with a side-kick out of the building. The woman crashes straight through the wall section between two windows, her face full of surprise...and pain. Hitting the ground, she rolls for about 20 meters, before hitting with her face on the trunk of a cherry tree.

"Ouch! That hurt you bitch!" she curses as she rubs her face, which has become red.

"It's hunting season!" she hears someone yelling with a rather monotone voice and looking back, she sees a blonde girl with a white scythe falling towards her. Diving to her left, she narrowly avoids the scythe, which cuts the cherry tree in half.

"Are you scared of a little lamb?" Odysseus mocks with an expressionless face.

"I'll show you who is scared-" she stops mid-sentence as the woman eyes a black kunai knife lodging itself on the ground in front of her, crackling with red electricity.

"Oh shit!" she screams as a huge pillar of focused red energy shoots upwards, destroying part of the courtyard in which the girls were fighting just now. As the pillar dissipates, Miho approaches Odysseus slowly.

"You think we got her?" she asks, eyeing the big crater her ability just created.

"Not even close. She seemed to be strong, so my best bet is she managed to escape," Odysseus responds, throwing her scythe in the air to let the weapon vanish. "At least we can have a breather now," she adds, deactivating her powers and returning to her normal form.

"Miporin, are you alright?!" Saori shouts as she runs to Miho, along with the rest of the Anglerfish team.

"Miss Nishizumi!" Yukari cries and tackles Miho to the ground, crying tears of joy and rubbing her cheeks all over Miho's face. "I am so glad you are okay!"

"Yukari, please calm down," Miho says, patting Yukari on her head.

"Did we get her?" Hana asks, eyeing the now destroyed courtyard.

"Hey tank lover, get off Miho!" Yuki growls, being supported by both Reiji and Tyler.

"Hey Odysseus, are you okay?" Annabelle asks the blonde girl, who is now standing in front of the Reaper and gazes into his red wisps of light that act as its eyes.

"I'm fine, no need to worry," she says, keeping her eyes glued on the Reaper that hovers in the air. "Get down here for a sec," she tells to the Reaper and it lowers itself on the ground, in front of Odysseus.

"So, can you speak?" she asks and the Reaper open its mouth, but no sounds come out of it.

"I'll take that as a no. Next one, can you make any tricks?"

As Odysseus keeps asking of her "companion" more ridiculous things, with Annabelle trying, and failing, to beat some sense into her head, Mako and Hana help Yukari and Miho to stand up.

"Now can you see the importance of the new branch? An Ether user can obliterate armies with ease. Only an Ether user can stop another one," the Director says, walking towards the girls slowly, with the guards flanking him on his sides. Everyone nods slowly in agreement. "Now we need to rebuild the courtyard too. Maybe I'll change its layout this time," he murmurs, eyeing the big crater that has replaced a big part of the courtyard. By now, many of the personnel has crowded the place, everyone looking at the destruction and the huge Reaper that just stands in front of Odysseus.

"Do we have any idea who that woman was?" Hana asks Miho.

"No, but...her powers felt almost the same as mine," Miho says aloud.

"Could it be that she was injected with the same Serum as you?" Saori asks.

"What Anzu gave us said that I was the only user, but it is possible," Miho thinks aloud.

"Is it possible that the Serums work only on female individuals? Because we haven't seen a single male individual that can use Ether," Mako comments.

"There was this guy that attacked Yuki though," Yukari interjects.

"Maybe certain Serums work only with one of the genders. We'll have to wait and see I guess," Miho murmurs.

* * *

 **Location Unknown**

 **27th of May 2 Y.A.**

Inside a very large room with expensive furniture, sits on a luxurious chair a boy no older than 17 years old. The chair is placed near a fireplace, the fire quietly crackling and illuminating the room. The boy holds in his left arm a manila folder, looking at its contents.

Around him stand three figures with hair that start brown at the root and gets darker as it lengthens till it is black. They have short hair that almost reaches the bottom of their neck with the sides combed down and back, and the top to the right. It also has natural bronze highlights in the front. They have a boxers nose, an oval face, and pointy natural lips with a soft pink color. They look lanky but in proportion with their height. They also have white skin with a rosy tint.

They wear a white uniform with red tron-like lines all over it. They look like they are quadruples. The only difference is the color of their eyes. The ones that are standing have red, blue and grey eyes respectively, while the boy that is sitting on the chair has a color that ranges from hazel to brown.

"Why do we have to wear this uniforms?!" the boy with the red eyes yells.

"Red, please calm down. They aren't as bad as you think," the boy with the blue eyes says with a smile at Red.

"Both of you stop. We aren't here to discuss about the uniforms," the boy with the grey eyes commands.

"Shut up Grey! You and Blue are the ones that use the body more often-"

"You know why that happens, don't you?" Grey interrupts Red, who just glares daggers at him.

"What did you want to discuss with us Grey?" Blue asks politely.

"I think I found a suitable candidate for being our commander," Grey says and a 3d model of Odysseus pops in view.

"But if what the documents say are true, her mind is shattered. How is she strong enough to consider her a candidate?" Blue asks worryingly.

"If the reports of the battle are any indication, she knows how to handle herself. Do you think she is like us?" Red asks.

"No. Her mind, unlike ours, is one unit. Having said that, she does shift based on her environment, just like us," Grey says. "The way I see it, we need to break her mind completely and then rebuilt it. After that, she should be able to meet our requirements."

"Haha, I can't wait to break her! She shall crumble under my will!" Red says while laughing maniacally.

"I can't wait to meet her," Blue says with a joyful smile.

"Then that is for now," Grey says.

Closing the Manila folder, all three figures dissappear, as the boy that is sitting on the chair stands up.

"We can't wait to meet you Miss Elpida. Let's see if you are worthy of being our commander," Henry says softly as he starts walking towards the room's exit.

* * *

 **A/N:Hope you like the introduction of the new antagonists. And the title is symbolic by the way. Sorry for the smaller chapter too.** **A** **nyway, a** **s always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and** **there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**


	20. Chapter 20: The Great Escape Plan

**The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 20: The Great Escape Plan**

* * *

 **Blackout Main Base**

 **Central Courtyard**

 **28th of May 2 Y.A.**

Walking along the outskirts of the half-destroyed courtyard, Reiji and Tyler are chatting about the upcoming mission. Since they no longer have a tank, they have a lot more free time in their hands.

"Can't believe we lost the tank," Tyler frowns.

"Are you still angry about that," Reiji asks.

"Well, I'm not angry, more like annoyed. We gave an absurd amount of money for that turret Odysseus wanted to build so much and after what? Two weeks? The whole thing went up in flames!" Tyler throws his arms in the air. "So we can't even buy a new tank to continue working! What the hell will we do now? Farming?" he grumbles as he let's his hand to fall limply on his sides.

"About that, remember the tank Odysseus jump onto?"

"What about it?"

"Since she single-handedly killed all of its crew, the Director decided to give it to her," Reiji says, which causes Tyler to raise his head rather quickly.

"So, we now have a modern light tank. Is that why Annabelle and Odysseus are missing all day today?" he inquires.

"Odysseus told me she would take Annabelle to see how the tank works." Reiji stops in front of a vending machine to buy a drink. Inserting the money and pressing a few buttons, the machine dispenses two cans of soda. Tyler goes and sits on a nearby bench, waiting for Reiji to finish.

"Catch." Reiji throws one of the cans to Tyler, who deftly catches it with his right hand.

"Thanks. But will she be able to drive it? Her feet were all bandaged up last time we checked on her."

"She is too stubborn not too," Reiji laughs a bit, joining Tyler.

"If she wasn't, she couldn't manage Odysseus and her craziness. Though she should take care of herself a bit more."

Both boys open their cans and take a sip. "Nothing can beat the sweet flavor of grape," Tyler sighs in satisfaction.

"Have you heard of our next mission?" Reiji asks.

"Heard we are going to Tokyo. It hasn't been a day and we are already going for the final boss," he responds back, looking at the purple colored can he holds with his hands.

"At least things will be quieter after we are done with the Institute."

"With how things have been going for the past two weeks, I highly doubt that," Tyler snorts lightly. "So, when are we moving out?"

"The briefing is in about two hours, so I'd say by five in the evening," Reiji says, gazing at the destroyed part of the courtyard. "You know this battle might as well be our last, right?"

"With the commander we have, every battle might be our last. I still wonder why we let that lunatic command us," Tyler says, before sipping the rest of his soda.

"Because that lunatic saved our lives. If it wasn't for her, we would be bones in a field somewhere," Reiji answers, he too drinking the rest of his beverage.

"Can't deny that. I just hope she won't have us storm into the enemy's ranks again. Poor Annabelle almost had a heart attack in the battle against R.I.J.A.," Tyler chuckles a little, remembering how thanks to Odysseus their tank found itself in the middle of machine guns and anti tank guns.

"And how Odysseus ducked inside the Panther with a katana, saying she could call tank charges now," Reiji chuckles too.

"For all the ridiculous things she does most of the times, she is a really fun fellow to be with," Tyler says in genuine praise for his commander.

"Speaking of ridiculous things, what's your opinion about that?" Reiji points to the left. Following his finger, Tyler spots Odysseus in the distance dragging Saori by the hand, the latter trying to escape from the former's grip.

"I am taking back my praise," Tyler facepalms with his right hand, shaking his head slowly.

"I shall be going now," Reiji says, choosing a tactical retreat rather than getting dragged to Odysseus' plans. "If she asks where I am, tell her I am visiting my sister's grave."

"Wait a moment." Putting his right hand in one of his uniform pockets, he takes out a necklace. It has a simple silver chain from which a single sapphire stone hangs. "Finally managed to fix it, make sure she has it."

Reiji takes it and inspects it a little. "I'm sure she would be happy knowing you held it for so long," he says to Tyler. Pocketing the necklace, he smirks a little. "Good luck," he winks at him, before standing up and making his way towards the base's cemetery.

"Don't be like Odysseus man!" Tyler says at Reiji, his last remark reminding him of how his commander would act.

"Hey Tyler!" Odysseus waves at Tyler, still dragging Saori.

"So, what are you planning again in that empty head of yours?" Tyler looks at Odysseus with a very serious face.

"Oh come on, I only have the best of intentions Tyler," she says with puppy eyes.

"Hi Saori," Tyler greets Saori, ignoring Odysseus completely.

"H-Hello T-Tyler," Saori stutters, blushing quite hard.

So that's your plan, huh? Tyler thinks, having guessed already Odysseus' grand masterplan.

"Have you seen Reiji? I want to show him our new tank," Odysseus says, stepping in front of Tyler so as not to be ignored again.

"He has gone to visit his sister," he says quietly and Odysseus' cheery attitude vanishing, albeit for a few seconds.

"Oh, I see. Well, have fun you two!" she forces a smile, before making her way to the base's cemetery and leaving Tyler and Saori alone.

Both of them stay silent, Tyler waiting for Saori to say something and Saori trying to think of something to tell, her brain unable to think from the nervousness she feels.

"So, why did Odysseus dragged you here?" Tyler asks to break the awkwardness of the current situation.

"O-Oh, y-you see...she...ummm, w-well, I wa-wanted to ask you a question," she manages to say, her cheeks as red as Annabelle's hair.

"Really now? And what would you like to know?" he asks, deciding to play along for now.

"Y-Yes, ummm...what I w-wanted to ask is..." she trails off, as her mind once again tries to find something to say. "...h-how you m-met Reiji! That's it, h-how you met Reiji!" she says quickly. Why did I said something like that?! she yells at herself mentally.

Tyler sighs mentally, having already seen through Saori's paper thin acting, but once again he chooses to play along.

"Let's go for a walk," he says, standing up from the bench he is sitting. Saori reluctantly joins him, standing next to him as they start walking.

"Everything started one week after the earthquakes. I was at Hitachinaka when the whole Apocalypse happened and it actually wasn't that bad. You'd expect chaos to ensue after the earthquakes would stop, but the town was completely empty of people for some strange reason."

* * *

 **Hitachinaka town**

 **One week after the earthquakes**

"Just another day with no earthquakes. Now, if the map I have found is right, there should be a Costco warehouse at the right of the road I currently am."

On top of a pile of rubble stands a 16 year-old boy, lazily looking at an unfolded map of the town he currently is with his blue eyes.

"This is going to be one heck of a walk," he sighs, running the fingers of his right hand through his blond hair.

"Well, whatever, let's just get going," he mumbles, folding the map and putting it on a dark brown backpack he is carrying with him. Grabbing a makeshift spear he has made, which consists of a sharpened metal piece taped on a metal broomstick, he carefully descends the pile of rubble he is on. Reaching the asphalt road, he starts walking in the middle of it, making sure to avoid the cracks it has. Looking around, he can see half-destroyed buildings with big chunks of them lying on the road, along with abandoned and crushed vehicles. As he keeps walking on the road, his mind starts wondering on how empty the city is. You'd expect that the place would be filled with looters and bandits, but in reality it is devoid of anything living...except for the mangled bodies of the unfortunate few that got trapped and crushed by rubble or got killed in the ensuing chaos. Though this tranquility is charming in its own way.

 _Grrrr..._

Hearing something growling, Tyler grabs his makeshift spear with both hands and brings it in front of his chest. At a distance of 20 meters stands a dog, one of the (un)fortunate few to still be alive. Keeping its head low, it growls at Tyler, its ears are flattened on the top of his head.

"Good doggy, I don't want any trouble. Just stay where you are and I will be on my way," Tyler says slowly, as he keeps eyeing the dog for any movement. As he starts walking, the dog growls some more and even barks once.

 _He must be hungry,_ Tyler guesses as he sees the sides of the dog, its ribcage clearly visible under the skin. The dog barks again and starts running towards Tyler and when it reaches him, it leaps on him and he barely manages to lift the spear horizontally and block the dog from ripping his throat. Falling down, Tyler presses the pole of his spear on the dog's throat, trying to hold it away from biting his neck. The dog tries to claw Tyler's arms, but his thick clothes prevent it from doing any serious damage.

"I'm not food you idiot!" Tyler shouts and knees the dog on its belly, throwing it sideways on the ground. Tyler stands up and thrusts his spear on the dog, stopping when its point touches its neck. The dog remains on the ground, growling and showing its teeth at Tyler, who is keeping his spear on its neck. After a few minutes, Tyler slowly retracts his spear and and the dog gets up and starts running away from Tyler as fast as it can.

"Desperation can cloud your thinking," Tyler mutters, looking down at his torn shirt and grazed arms. "Great, now I need a new shirt," he grumbles. Retrieving a roll of gauze from his backpack, he wraps it around his hands. "Anyway, time to go," he thinks aloud and starts walking towards the outskirts of the town. After about 20 minutes of walking and rubble climbing, he finally reaches his destination.

"What a huge building," he says, looking at the huge warehouse-like building. Rounding the building, he finds its entrance, which is in a really bad shape, as a truck has crashed through it. Passing through the destroyed entrance, he gazes in the rows upon rows of empty or fallen shelves, with different kind of products lying on the ground.

 _So, it is already looted,_ he thinks as he passes from the counters. Though there is no electricity, a part of the roof has caved in, allowing for light to come through the roof and provide some necessary lighting to the place. For the next hour, Tyler goes through the rows of shelves, searching for anything that seems useful.

"So, I found three large bottles of water and six small, a couple cans of food, a bigger backpack and some clothes. Now I need to find some bandages and I should be fine," he says aloud, counting his newly acquired loot. Walking through some fallen shelves, Tyler spots a shelve with some bandages, so he makes his way towards it. Grabbing as many as he can, he puts them inside his newly acquired backpack, that has a red and white polka-dot pattern.

 _Now that I have everything I want, it's time to get out of here._ While making his way towards the entrance of the building, he turns around the corner of some shelves and comes face to face with two people, a boy around his age and a younger girl. The boy has short brown hair and hazel eyes, wears a black T-shirt and brown pants and carries a backpack, while the girl has long brown hair and brown eyes, and wears a pink one-piece dress that goes till her knees, its sides cut till the sides of her thighs, so she'll be able to run. She also wears a necklace that consists of a silver chain and a sapphire stone. All three stare at each other, not knowing what to do. While Tyler has his makeshift spear, the boy and girl don't seem to have any weapon. Both of them eye the spear and Tyler for any sudden movements, so Tyler slowly lowers his spear and leaves it on the ground to show he has no ill intentions.

"My name is Davis Tyler, I have no hostile intentions against you," he says slowly in Japanese. _Thank God for mother and her insistence I learn Japanese,_ he thanks in his mind.

Seeing he has laid his weapon down, both the boy and the girl relax a bit, though the girl goes and hides behind the boy.

"My name is Akaza Reiji," the boy responds, still eyeing Tyler with suspicion.

"M-My n-name is M-Mizuki," the girl stutters, but more of shyness than fear.

"That's a beautiful name," Tyler smiles, which causes the girl to smile and blush a little.

Suddenly, the whole place starts shaking, slowly at first, then faster and faster. "Earthquake!" Tyler yells and the three start running towards the entrance of the building, with shelves falling over and even some of the lights that hang from the ceiling plunging down on the ground. _I forgot my weapon!_ Tyler shouts mentally.

"Arghh!" Mizuki cries as she falls to the ground, having tripped on her own feet.

"Come on Mizuki!" Reiji says loudly as he picks up his sister.

"Wait, Mother's necklace has fallen off!" Mizuki says, seeing the necklace she wore down on the floor.

"I got it, just keep running!" Tyler shouts. Seeing where the necklace has fallen, he slides next to it, grabs it and then resumes running, all in one fluid motion. Massive cracks start forming on the building's roof, which starts to collapse.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, we are going to die!" he yells, seeing the collapsing roof that rapidly approaches him. As both Reiji and Mizuki run out of the building, Tyler dives out of it like the main protagonist of an action movie, barely avoiding a really gruesome death. Rolling a few meters on the ground, he grinds against the asphalt of the parking lot for a bit. The ground stops shaking, as the dust from the collapsed building sweeps over him and slowly settles down on the ground.

"This needs to become a movie," he grunts a little as he sits up on the ground.

"Are you OK?" Reiji asks, standing in front of Tyler and extending his arm to help him stand up.

"Could be better," Tyler answers back as he takes Reiji's hand and stands up. "Here," he hands Reiji Mizuki's necklace.

"Th-Thank you very much," Mizuki says, again hiding behind her brother.

"No worries. So, how about we stick together from now on?"

* * *

"And that's how I met Reiji and his sister," Tyler finishes narrating his meeting with Reiji. By now, Tyler and Saori have walked all the way to the second and smaller courtyard that resides behind the Administrative building. It's like the main courtyard, only that it has different kinds of flowers instead of cherry trees. Because it is behind the Administrative building, which is the second biggest building in the base, the courtyard is most of the time empty, save for the gardeners that come to take care of the flowers.

"So Reiji has a sister? Is she working here in Blackout?" Saori asks curiously, having got over her initial nervousness and shyness.

"She is dead, Tyler says grimly."A word of advise, don't bring it up whenever around Odysseus," he warns, deathly serious.

"Oh...I-I see," Saori says, lowering her head to gaze on the ground, feeling bad for asking such a question.

"Anyway, I want to ask you a question."

"What is it?"

"Why did Odysseus dragged you all the way to where I was? I have known her for more than a year and she won't drag people around like that, unless she is given a really good reason to," Tyler asks, taking a step closer to Saori.

"Ah, y-you see...uum,th-the reason is..." Saori stutters as blood starts rushing in her cheeks, which redden considerably.

"Yes?" Tyler says, taking another step closer to Saori. Due to the height difference, Saori has to raise her head to look at Tyler, making him look more intimidating.

"W-Well...th-the truth is..." she trails off, as her cheeks redden so much, it's like looking at Annabelle's hair.

"You like me," Tyler says calmly, causing Saori's face to become as red as hot iron from embarrassment.

"H-How-" she blurts out, her brain barely able to function from all the embarrassment, shock and surprise she feels.

"I knew? I've four older sisters and my whole life I've been surrounded by girls. After a while you start to understand what a girl is thinking based on her actions and speech. The only exception on this is Odysseus, not even a psychologist knows what she is thinking," Reiji frowns a little at the fact he can't discern what that blonde idiot is thinking most of the time.

"S-So, all this time...you knew?" she whispers, barely audible for Tyler to hear her.

"Yes. By the way, the love letter you have behind your back won't be needed," he points at Saori's hands that are behind her back that hold a small envelope, something she probably took out from one of her uniform's pockets while Tyler was telling her how he met Reiji. Saori can feel her heart sinking, her face becoming pale. Her hands start trembling, slightly crinkling the envelope she is holding. Right now she wants to scream but at the same time, to vanish from the face of the Earth. She feels as if the world around her has become dull, the colors of it having faded. After managing to find the courage to write this letter and making the not-so-great choice of asking Odysseus to give the envelope to Tyler, with Odysseus instead dragging her by hand on Tyler, after being the first time she had genuine feelings about someone, will she get rejected?

"S-So, I-I..." she says in a quivering voice, not wanting to finish the sentence, because if she does, her heart will just shatter in a million pieces. She just gazes down on the ground, wishing that all these are just a bad dream.

"Before you fall into complete depression, can you look at me?" Tyler asks, seeing Saori is on the verge of tears and probably depression by jumping onto conclusions too fast.

Raising her head to look at Tyler, she feels a pair of lips pressing softly against hers and her whole world explodes in bright colors. Her heart starts beating faster and faster, a warm feeling covering her chest. Widening her eyes in surprise, she just stands there, her body unable to move. The softness of the lips, the sweetness of the kiss, they have paralyzed her, but she doesn't care, her mind going blank. Parting from their kiss, Tyler smiles a little upon seeing Saori's dumbfounded expression.

"If we manage to survive our next mission, I'll take you somewhere nice," he says, before walking away. "Have a nice day," he waves at Saori.

"Y-Yeah," Saori whispers, touching her lips with a finger, her brain still processing what has just happened.

Unbeknownst to both Tyler and Saori, a figure observes them from afar with a smile, her brown eyes glistening in the midday sun. Saying nothing, the figure resumes her business, humming the Panzerlied tune.

* * *

"President, shouldn't we be thinking of a way to free the rest of the Senshadou club?"

"We have been holed up in this air vent for 2 hours now, the base is on full alert because we are missing and the President's clothes are torn. What else could go wrong?"

"Momo-chan, keep your voice down or they'll hear us."

"Don't call me Momo-chan!"

Inside an air duct are hiding the three members of Ooarai's Student Council, Anzu, Yuzu and Momo. Thanks to Anzu's escape from the interrogation room, that was almost over as soon as it began, the base has been on full alert for the past 24 hours. Normally, the lockdown of the lab would have been lifted by now, if Anzu, after freeing Yuzu and Momo, hadn't walked straight on a patrol. Despite dealing quickly with them, the alarm was sounded and so they have been hiding in the ventilation system since then, occasionally exiting it to grab food or go in the toilet, since both the kitchen and bathrooms don't have any cameras.

"Relax, we'll be fine here. All we have to do is come up with a plan to free our friends and get out of here," Anzu calmly replies, lying lazily on the air duct and chewing on some dried sweet potatoes.

"President, you should take it more seriously!" Momo says hotly, annoyed by her president's lax attitude at such a crucial time.

"Momo-chan, please keep your voice down," Yuzu smiles awkwardly at Momo once again.

"Don't call me Mo-mmhhmhm!" Momo tries to yell and Yuzu silences her by putting her right hand on top of her mouth.

"Prez, do you have any idea on how we will free the rest of the girls?" Yuzu asks Anzu, still keeping her hand on Momo's mouth.

"It's simple, really," Anzu grins, holding in her hands six ID cards. "We pass one in each team and when the time is right, they use them and get away. We meet at the lab's elevator, go to the garage, steal some tanks and bust out of here.

"So you had a plan already, but how will they use the cards to get out, though?" Yuzu asks with a confused expression.

"The cells that are confined inside are essentially storage rooms. No cameras, only one entrance and the air duct that connects them. If they use those IDs on the doors, they should be able to escape," Momo explains, lowering Yuzu's hand.

"So, get three cards each and go give them to the girls," Anzu says lazily, waving the cards lightly in the air.

"President, you must help too!" Momo whispers furiously, remembering not to raise her voice.

"Too bored right now," she waves her hand dismissively.

"Just let it go Momo," Yuzu says, taking the cards from Anzu and handing three of them to Momo.

Groaning in annoyance, Momo goes forward from where they are currently in. Taking a left and continuing forwards for about twenty meters, she finds herself on top of the storage room where the Mallard team is kept confined. Lifting the cover of the air duct and setting it aside, she lowers her head a little inside the room.

"Hey, Mallard team!" she says quickly, in case someone decides to enter the room to check on the girls. Hearing their team name, three girls that could pass as triplets turn to gaze at the ceiling and Momo. Realizing who she is, they quickly go under the air duct and salute Momo. Two of them have short black hair and eyes, while one of them has medium black hair and black eyes. They all wear white uniforms with blue tron-like lines all over them, a small label with their names etched on the top right. By sheer coincidence, all three girls have the same height, being 145 cm tall.

"Miss Momo, we are glad to see you again and in full health," the girl on the right says.

"Sodoko, Gomoyo, and Pazomi, we don't have much time so listen carefully. Take this ID card and when the time is right, use them to escape to the lab's elevator, where we will all meet" Momo says quickly, throwing hem one of the ID cards. "Make sure no one finds it."

"Understood! Umm, how will we know that is time to use it?" Sodoko asks.

"I don't know, probably you'll hear explosions and gunfire," Momo says hesitantly, not knowing herself when the right time will be, since Anzu didn't say anything about when to use the ID card.

"And if we come across any enemies?"

"Try to knock them unconscious, but if the need arises, kill them," Momo says with a very serious expression and all three girls shiver.

"U-Understood!" all three girls stutter, still having nightmares of the day they had to defend the carrier. Since they had been attacked by armed forces, they were forced to kill some of the attackers, though in the end they got overwhelmed and captured.

Saying nothing more, Momo puts the cover of the air duct back in its place and continues towards the next team. After about 20 meters, she reaches the next storage room and she can hear clanking noises and even something that resembles a blowtorch, so she assumes she is at Leopon's confinement room. Removing the cover of the air duct, she once again lowers her head inside the room.

"Leopon team!" she yells so as to be heard over the noises that are coming from the room. All four members are working on repairing a tank's engine, something the girls requested to pass their time. One of the girls that has dark brown hair and dark brown eyes with a height of about 146 cm, stops using the blowtorch on the engine and raises the goggles she is wearing and looks at Momo.

"Oh, Miss Momo, glad to see you are alright!" she shouts, waving at her. "We were really worried when we heard the lab's alarm.

"Tell the others to stop for a moment, I need to inform you of something!" Momo shouts back.

"Hoshino, Suzuki, Tsuchiya, come here for a second!" the girl shouts and everyone stops whatever they are doing. Three girls come to the girl that shouted, all wielding a tool. All of them wear white uniforms with green tron-like lines. In all uniforms there is each girl's name on the top right of it.

"What is it Satoko?" a girl with short red brown hair and a pair of blue eyes asks, wielding a wrench. She is quite tall at 168 cm, her skin color being darker than the rest of her friends. In her uniform the name Suzuki is etched with black letters.

"Miss Momo is here to tell us something." Satoko says back.

"How is the President and Miss Yuzu?" a girl with medium black hair and green eyes asks, holding a screwdriver in her right hand. In her uniform, the name Hoshino is etched. She is a bit shorter than Suzuki, at 160 cm.

"They are fine," Momo answers back.

"So, what do you want to tell us Miss Momo?" a girl with short brown hair and black eyes asks Momo, the name Tsuchiya etched on her uniform. She is holding a french key and is barely taller than Satoko, at 150 cm.

"Here," Momo says and throws Satoko an ID card, who catches it with her right hand. "Use it to escape when the time is right...probably when you hear explosions or gunfire. We will meet at the lab's elevator."

"And if we encounter enemies?" Tsuchiya asks.

"Knock them unconscious. Kill them if there is no other option."

"It's been some time since I bashed some heads," Suzuki grins, putting her wrench over her left shoulder.

"Now, now, no need to be violent Suzuki," Satoko chuckles nervously.

Leaving the girls to their own devices, Momo puts the cover of the air duct back on its place and continues till the end of the air duct, where the Duck team is. Opening the cover of the air duct she hears someone yelling "Guts!", before a volleyball hits her square in the face.

"Miss Momo? What are you doing here?" a short girl with short dark brown hair and a pair of dark brown eyes says, grabbing the falling volleyball. She is the shortest of everyone inside the room, being 143 cm tall.

"Watch it Noriko!" Momo shouts, fixing her eyeglass that was knocked down.

"Maybe she is here to play volleyball with us!" a tall and well endowed girl with a medium pink-ish brown hair and a pair of brown eyes says. She also wears a red bandana on her head and is 167 cm tall.

"I don't think Miss Momo is here to play with us Taeko," a tall and slender girl with short brown hair, tied in a small ponytail using a red hair tie, and a pair of brown eyes says. She is by far the tallest girl in the room, being 170 cm tall.

"Why not Shinobu?" a tall and well endowed girl with blonde hair tied in a single long ponytail and a pair of light yellow brown eyes asks. She wears a white hairband and she is also the second taller girl in the room, being 165 cm tall. The girls all wear white uniforms with orange tron-like lines all over them. From left to right, the names Isobe Noriko, Kondou Taeko, Kawanishi Shinobu and Sasaki Akebi are etched on each girl's uniform. Though in the cases of Taeko and Akebi, it seems the uniform is a bit tight on the chest area.

"Isobe, catch," Momo says, throwing her the last ID card Momo has with her. Noriko throws the volleyball to Akebi, catching the ID card in the nick of time.

"Use it to escape when the time comes, probably when you hear explosions or gunfire. If you come across enemies, knock them out. As a last resort, kill them. We will meet at the lab's elevator."

"Don't worry, we shall escape to freedom all together!" Noriko shouts, pumping her first in the air.

"Yeah!" everyone cheers. As the Duck team continues their volleyball match, Momo closes the cover of the air duct and then makes her way back to where Anzu is.

Meanwhile, Yuzu only now reaches one of the remaining teams. Opening the cover of the air duct, she peeks inside the room and spots all four members of the Hippo team sitting around a shogi board.

"The Wermacht shall not lose Caesar!" a girl with short blonde hair and a pair of brown eyes says. She wears a German Field Marshal's Cap modeled on that of Erwin Rommel. Her hairstyle resembles the ears of the fennec fox, also known as the "Desert fox" and her height is about 158 cm tall.

"Your Wermacht shall be crushed under the might of my legions Erwin!" a girl with short dark brown hair and dark brown eyes declares. She is wearing a long red cloth, that resembles a Roman Focale. She is a bit taller than Erwin, at 165 cm.

"Caesar wins," a girl with long red brown hair and a pair of dark brown eyes declares. She's wearing a headband with six circles and she is barely shorter than Erwin, measuring 156 cm tall. She also keeps her left eye closed, like she is aiming a bow or a gun.

"The match had been decided by the first move," girl with mid-length unruly black hair and a pair of midnight blue eyes says. She wears red eyeglasses and is by far the shortest of everyone in the room, being only 149 cm tall.

"Come on Oryou, you could at least say that it was a close match," Erwin says, though a cocky smile that brims with confidence is etched on her face.

"But it was a close one," the girl that keeps her left eye closed says.

"Thanks Saemonza," Erwin thanks Saemonza.

"Hey girls!" Yuzu waves at them, so as to draw their attention.

"Ah, Miss Yuzu," Erwin says and all the members of the Hippo team stand up to go closer to the air duct. All of the girls wear white uniforms with gray tron-like lines all over them. In Erin's uniform, the name Matsumoto Riko is etched, in Caesar's the name Suzuki Takako, in Saemonza's the name Sugiyama Kiyomi and in Oryou's the name Nogami Takeko.

"Is something wrong?" Saemonza asks, still keeping her left eye closed.

"Take this." Yuzu lets one of the ID cards to fall from the ceiling where the air duct is, to the floor. "Use it to escape from here when the time is right," she informs them.

"When the time is right? Maybe by an artillery barrage?" Erwin suggests.

"Or when friendly forces lay a siege on this lab," Caesar says

"Or when a samurai charge happens," Saemonza proposes.

"Maybe when explosions and gunfire occurs," Oryou tells.

"That's it!" every member of the Hippo team says at the same time.

"What about enemies?" Erwin asks Yuzu.

"Well...try to incapacitate them. Worst case, you have to kill them," she says slowly.

"Understood Miss Yuzu! We shall fight to the best of our abilities!" Erwin, along with the rest of her team, salutes.

"We'll all regroup at the elevator that leads to the garage depot. Have you memorized the layout of this floor?"

"Yes!" they all respond.

"Then that is all for now."

Saying nothing more, Yuzu closes the cover of the air duct and continues forwards, towards the next team. After 30 meters, she finds herself above another one of the 'confinement' rooms. Opening the cover of the air duct and peeking inside the room, she spots three girls sitting in one of the corners of the room, playing games on handheld consoles. Despite the spacious room that has two bunk beds, an office desk and enough space for a car to be parked, the girls are all in a corner, something Yuzu finds quite peculiar.

"Girls, can you hear me?" Yuzu says.

"Mhm? Did you hear a voice, nyaa?" a tall and very thin girl raises her head from her console, with long blonde hair that seems somewhat lank. She also wears a huge pair of swirly glasses and a pair of cat ears.

"I didn't here anything Nekonya, piyo," a girl with grey hair, which are tied into a ponytail, and pair of gray eyes and freckles says. She is as tall as Nekonya, at 168 cm tall.

"Girls, over here," Yuzu says again, waving one of her hands out of the air duct.

"Nekonya, Piyotan, over there, momo!" a girl with a short pinkish brown hair and a pair of red brown eyes points at the air duct. She's wearing a peach shaped eyepatch on her right eye and is the shortest of the girls, at a height of 155cm.

"Hello Miss Yuzu!" Nekonya waves at her.

"What are you doing in the air duct?" Piyotan asks.

"Are you hiding from someone?" the girl with the peach shaped eyepatch says.

"Yes, Momoga. Didn't you hear the alarms yesterday?"

"Umm, we were too absorbed in our gaming session to notice," Momoga admits, scratching the back of her head and all three girls laugh awkwardly.

"Oh, I see..." Yuzu says with an awkward smile. "Anyway, take this card." Yuzu let's the card fall to the ground, though the strap this card has gets tangled in the air duct's opened cover, leaving it hanging in mid-air. Before Yuzu can untangle the strap though, Momoga boosts Nekonya in the air with her hands and Nekonya grabs the ID card in the air and when she lands, she rolls forward to soften her landing.

"Bravo!" both Momoga and Piyotan exclaim, clapping at Nekonya's movie-like grab, who is blushing a little. All three girls wear white uniforms with purple tron-like lines all over them. In each girl's uniform is their names etched, though in Nekonya's case the name Nekota is etched.

"Use the ID card to escape from here when the time is right," Yuzu says to them.

"How will we know when the right time is?" Momoga asks.

"Maybe it is like a timed quest?" Piyotan suggests.

"Maybe it has some secret requirements for it to activate," Nekonya says.

"What if we come against enemy patrols?" Momoga asks Yuzu.

"Incapacitate them. Worst case, you'll have to eliminate them."

"Always wanted to try an FPS in real life!" Momoga says excitedly.

"One last thing. We'll all regroup at the lab's elevator that leads to the garage."

"Okay!" the three girls say, before going back to their handheld consoles.

And with that, Yuzu closes the cover of the air duct and continues towards the last of the teams. Reaching a certain point, the air duct goes down about one meter. Getting down, Yuzu finds herself in front of a narrow part of the air duct, where to continue forward, she has to crawl the rest of the way. Reaching the end, she notices that the air duct is connected to the wall of the room, instead of the ceiling. Also, the cover of it is bolted at the end, so giving the girls the ID card might be tricky, though she could slip it between the openings the cover has.

Looking through the openings, she spots all the members of Rabbit team in a line, one of the lab's soldiers in front of them, raising his hand to grab one of the girls.

Not giving it a second thought, she somehow manages to place her feet on the bolted cover and with one good kick, the cover gets blown out of his place, enabling Yuzu to exit the air duct and drop onto the floor. Hearing a loud bang, both the girls and the soldier look at the direction of the air duct, only to see Yuzu landing on the floor. Before anyone can react, Yuzu bolts forwards and tackles the soldier on the ground. The soldier, still holding his rifle, tries to aim it at Yuzu, who barely manages to knock him unconscious with a punch in his metal helmet.

"Ouch!" she remarks, shaking her hand a bit, due to the pain she is feeling.

"Miss Yuzu!" all the girls, except for one, yell, gathering around Yuzu, who is getting up from the ground.

"Are you girls alright?" Yuzu asks quickly and with urgency mixed in her voice.

"Azusa is okay!" a girl with short dark brown hair and a pair of dark brown eyes says. She is a bit shorter then Yuzu, being 151 cm tall.

"Ayumi is fine!" a girl with long dark blue hair and a pair of dark blue eyes says. She is a bit taller than Yuzu, being 160 cm tall.

"Aya is fine!" a girl with long twin ponytail blonde hair and a pair of brown eyes says. She's also wearing wide eyeglasses and is marginally shorter than Azusa, being 150 cm tall.

"Yuuki is fine," a rather short girl, with short black hair and dark grey eyes says. She's shorter than Azusa, being 145 cm tall.

"Karina is fine!" a girl with a short light brown hair and a pair of dark blue eyes says excitedly, raising her right hand in the air. She has the same height as Yuuki.

"Good to see you are all fine. Umm, is Saki alright?" Yuzu asks, pointing at a girl with short grayish brown hair and brown eyes, who has the same height as Aya. She seems to be staring into one of the walls of the room they are in. All of the girls wear white uniforms with pink tron-like lines all over them. Their full names are etched on the top right of their uniforms.

"Yes, she just observes a white butterfly that sits on the wall!" Karina says excitedly.

"Okay...so, this guy didn't try to take advantage of you, did he?" Yuzu asks.

"No, he was just checking on us. You know, if we have anything illegal on us," Ayumi answers.

"Oh...anyway, I am here to give you something important," Yuzu says quickly, handing Azusa the last ID card. "Use this card to escape from here when the time is right."

"What does that mean?" Azusa asks, confused by Yuzu's last words.

"Hey, do you hear voices coming from inside?" a heavily synthesized voice says from outside the room.

"I think I heard something. Now that you mention it, Soldier 422 is still inside. Maybe something happened?" another heavily synthesized voice says.

"We don't have much time, so I'll be short. When you escape, you go to the rendezvous point at the lab's elevator. If you see any enemies during your escape, either incapacitate them or kill them," Yuzu says as quickly as humanly possible, running towards the open air duct and with a jump, she grabs the edge of the opened air duct and climbs in. Ayumi grabs the cover of the air duct that is on the floor and puts it in its place mere moments before the door to the room opens and two soldiers enter inside.

"What happened here?" one of them demands, seeing the unconscious soldier.

"He tried to molest us!" Karina says impulsively, her mouth uttering the first lie that crosses her mind, pointing at the passed out soldier.

"Seriously, has he gone rogue?" one of the soldier says in disbelief.

"Let's get him for a protocol check," the other soldier suggests, dragging the unconscious man out of the room.

"Okay. And you girls, don't try anything funny," the soldier that had entered first warns them. Exiting the room and closing the door, the girls sigh in relief, thankfull the men didn't notice that Azusa was hiding something behind her back and the dent the cover of the air duct had. By now, Yuzu is already on her way back to Anzu and Momo, not wanting to get spotted and put the girls into a troublesome situation.

"Will we have to kill people again?" Yuuki asks with a slightly quivering voice.

"I-I don't want that!" Karina cries, not wanting to repeat the actions they had to take during their carrier's defense. The other girls also start whimpering, with the exception of Saki, who is still observing the white butterfly that is on the wall of the room.

"Girls, stay calm! I'm sure that we won't have to...kill someone, everything's going to be fine," Azusa says with a comforting tone, greatly calming the girls. _At least that's what I hope for._

* * *

 **A/N: Here we have the next chapter of our story! Things are getting in motion and the next few chapters are going to be very interesting, to say the least** **.** **A** **nyway, a** **s always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and** **there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**


	21. Chapter 21: Mors Expectet

**The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 21: Mors Expectet**

* * *

 **28th of May 2 Y.A.**

 **Blackout Main Base**

 **In front of the Garage Depot**

In front of the Garage Depot's opened metal doors stand Blackout's tank crews, at least those that have survived and can fight or those that haven't lost their vehicles. Though their numbers suggest that five tanks can be manned at the most, which is very weird. In front of them stand two people, Shimanuki Teruo, also know as the Coordinator and a middle aged woman, that has long brown hair tied in a side ponytail and a pair of light blue eyes. She wears Blackout's standard black uniform, although the uniform has no insignia to signify from which department she is. In the top right of the uniform, the name Ariyoshi Misako is etched. Everyone is especially nervous, since the Director himself will be coming all the way to the Garage Depot to inform them about their upcoming mission.

"Miss Nishizumi, can I ask you a question?" Yukari says.

"What is it Yukari?" Miho asks her.

"Why is Saori behaving like that?" Yukari points at Saori with a blank expression, who seems to be in her own small tralala-land, mumbling incoherent things while looking at no particular direction with heart-shaped eyes.

"And then we will marry, have kids and live a quiet life in the countryside," she mumbles among other disturbing things that are starting to creep out Mako.

"I think that something's not right with her," Mako blurts out as she looks at her friend with a slightly scared expression.

"She has been like that for the past hour now," Hana says with slight concern.

"I am sure she'll be fine," Miho giggles awkwardly, before approaching Saori and leaning closely to her left ear.

"I think you should behave a bit more normally or they'll find out," she whispers, which causes Saori to snap out of her trance and look at Miho with a horrified expression.

"F-F-Find out wh-what?" Saori stutters, but Miho stares at her with a smile, saying nothing.

"Y-You s-s-s-saw us?!" Saori whispers, her face becoming crimson from embarrassment.

"I was looking for you and happened to spot you two talking," she says in a low voice, so that only Saori can hear her.

"I-I see..." Saori stutters, looking at the ground for the third time today.

"Is something the matter Saori?" Hana asks, seeing Saori's sudden behavior change.

"N-No, everything is f-"

"She kissed Tyler," Mako says bluntly, finding the perfect opportunity to get back on her for waking her early in the morning.

"H-How did you know?!" Saori cries, pinching and pulling both of Mako's cheeks, her face becoming even more red.

"Oh my!" Hana blushes lightly, covering her mouth with the fingers in her right hand.

"I was sleeping on a bench in the small courtyard and accidentally saw you when I woke up," she says clearly, despite the relentless attack on her cheeks by Saori.

"Good for you Saori, you finally have a relationship!" Yukari says cheerfully.

"You are not helping Yukari!" Saori cries in embarrassment.

"Girls, you are making a scene!" Miho says quickly, eyeing the other tank crews that give them weird looks.

"So, what did you do Tyler?" Odysseus asks Tyler teasingly, poking his left cheek with her finger.

"And why should I tell you of all people?" Tyler frowns, not making eye contact with his commander.

"Oh? Did you do something naughty with her Tyler?" she says mischievously, still poking Tyler on his cheek.

"I only kissed her, you perverted girl," Tyler says, grabbing Odysseus' poking finger and squeezing it with considerable force.

"Only kissed, huh? How do we know you didn't do anything more?" she says seductively, running a finger across Tyler's chest and abdomen. Though most of the male soldiers are either enthralled by Odysseus, or are glaring daggers at Tyler, he just looks at her with a bored face, clearly indicating that Odysseus' tricks have no effect on him.

"Watch it commander," Reiji warns, though it is too late.

"Hey Odysseus," Annabelle smiles and when Odysseus looks back at her redhead friend, she finds her face being grabbed and squeezed by her hand. "Having fun?" Annabelle asks with an innocent yet terrifying smile, sending shivers down the spines of everyone.

"A lot...I'm really sorry Annabelle, please don't kill me," Odysseus pleads quietly, feeling her face getting squeezed harder by each passing second.

"Ah, isn't youth beautiful," a familiar voice says and everyone stands at attention. Annabelle releases Odysseus' face, who has red marks that resemble fingers on both sides of her face.

"Sir," both Teruo and the woman standing on his right salute, followed by the salutes of the tank crews.

"Hey old man!" Odysseus waves at him cheerfully. Most of the oldest members just shake their heads disapprovingly while the newest ones sweatdrop. Annabelle just grab Odysseus by the face again, while staying in attention and saluting.

"You are as rowdy as ever. Anyway, at ease," he orders and everyone relaxes, stopping saluting. Making his way in front of the Garage Depot, he stops to Teruo's left.

"I am here to inform you of your next mission. As you know, most of our forces, including three of Blackout's elite squads, were annihilated yesterday, so we are kinda thin on the deployable forces right now. Our target is the Institute's headquarters, which reside in an underground laboratory in the city of Tokyo. Most of our forces will rendezvous with forces from other bases in the outskirts of Tokyo, before launching an attack to reclaim the city. The attack however is a decoy. Your orders as of now is to escort Nishizumi Miho and her team in the coordinates that will be provided to you from Miss Ariyoshi. You will be transported via transport helicopters along with your vehicles about 50 km away from your objective. You leave in an hour; dismissed," he says, before leaving the tank crews to prepare. As Misako is handing each person a document with their target's coordinates and some other information, Teruo coughs once to get their attention.

"Listen well all of you. The moment you disembark the helicopters, you are on your own. Expect heavy resistance, even with the decoy attack."

"Excuse me Coordinator, but who will be the commander of this unit?" a commander of one of the tanks asks.

"The one you will be escorting," he responds curtly, causing everyone to look at Miho.

"Eh?" Miho says with a dumbfounded expression. The other tank commanders seem to be relieved at this, since they won't be responsible of commanding five tanks into hostile territory, something that can be rather nerve-racking, plus their commander will be a member of an elite squad, which gives them the highest chances of survival.

* * *

 **At the same time**

 **Tokyo Skytree Tower**

On the top of the Skytree Tower stand two figures, more specifically, two scientists. They both look down at the destroyed city of Tokyo, with most of the buildings flattened out of existence, spare some stubborn ones that still stand proud and tall, albeit damaged.

"Thank you Dr. Azarin for your help with the information," Mannheim tells Azarin. Despite the height in which they are, the winds seem to be of no concern for them, as they literally bend outwards of them, like a barrier prevents them from passing through the space the two men are.

"Don't mention it, I owed you a favor anyway. I hope you don't mind that I gave her her sister's file," Azarin asks Mannheim, lazily gazing at the destroyed port of Tokyo, where several container ships are sunk, only some parts of their hulls peeking out of the water.

"At this point in time, it doesn't matter. My goal of luring Subject 23 here was successful."

"Why are you so obsessed with her, Mannheim?" Azarin asks his friend and colleague, this time turning to look at him.

"Because she has potential, Azarin! She is the only one to have survived the Serum Black DNA alteration and she is a Class-S user," Mannheim says with a certain admiration. "I want to see just how much potential she has, Azarin. She might be the only one who can combat them."

Azarin can feel the anger in Mannheim's voice when he says the last part. "You refer to the twelve, don't you? The ones who caused all this destruction and more..." Azarin trails off, looking at the flattened city. "Actually, what happened at the unit who was sent to the God's Domain?"

"It was killed, but not before sending some interesting pictures."

With a flick of his right hand, several pictures materialize in front of Azarin, their borders glowing with a greenish-white light.

"They changed the timeline? This can't be right, not even Ether can transcend time and the concept of life," Azarin says, looking at the pictures in disbelief.

"They must have had intervened personally, or else this reality would have collapsed."

"Like they did with the city? It was a single sword strike if I remember correctly, that caused all this," Azarin motions with his left hand at the city.

"No, because then, our reality would have been destroyed. They must have diverted the residual energy to either realities that didn't interest them, or made new ones," Mannheim says with a skeptical look.

"If I remember correctly, they aren't at the top, so how did they went unnoticed?" Azarin asks curiously?

"Who knows. We don't know fully what lies beyond reality, so there could be a way to conceal themselves," Mannheim suggests, though he is not sure himself.

"Whatever the case, I think it is time to go. I can't thank you enough for locating my family in Russia," Azarin says, raising his hand for a handshake.

"Don't mention it. Send my regards on Aleksey and his family too, I'm sure he'll be happy to see his daughter again," Mannheim says with a smile, shaking Azarin's hand.

With that, Azarin jumps down the Skytree Tower, before vanishing in thin air. Looking at the horizon, Mannheim finally lowers the barrier that blocked the wind, his blond hair waving at the gentle breeze that hits him.

"The twelve will pay...for my family." Bitter memories come to mind, as his facial expression remains unchanged. "No time to remember the past, I need to take care of the Institute's directors," he sighs, before jumping from the tower and vanishing mid-fall.

* * *

Inside a very familiar and big room sits in a luxury chair Henry, enjoying some tea and reading a book. Around the chair stand the three different personalities Henry has, though it looks more like four different people are sharing the same body.

In front of them kneels a woman with black hair and red eyes, looking at the floor with an ashamed and fearful expression. "I am truly sorry, but I have failed. The Serum Black user is still alive and the Serum White user is still free."

"What?! She had one fucking job and she messed up! How can someone mess such an easy job?!" Red yells, though only Gray, Blue and Henry can hear him.

"But she tried Red, give her some credit!"Blue says to Red.

"In defense of Red, he does have a point. She could just snatch Elpida and retreat, but she chose to reveal herself. This shows overconfidence in her powers, which is not a good sign," Gray says. "It matters not now, our plans are already progressing. I'm sorry Blue, but you'll have to wait a little bit longer," Gray sighs.

"I-It's okay Gray, I understand," Blue says reluctantly.

Closing his book, Red, Blue and Gray vanish, and Henry looks at the kneeling woman. "It matters not now. Have the Airfleet prepare for departure Centi, we are going back to America," Henry says with a disgusted voice, both because of Centi's presence and that he has to go back in America.

Standing up, he makes his way towards the exit of the room. "Make sure the explosives are set properly. I want everything destroyed."

Reaching the door, he looks at Centi, who is still kneeling, from the corner of his right eye. "There won't be next time." he warns, before exiting the room.

Despite the soft voice Henry used, Centi's body was trembling from fear and terror, nasty memories being recalled by her brain subconsciously. Out of thin air, a huge black centipede appears, circling her and putting itself under her face. Tears start rolling from her eyes, as she hugs the centipede affectionately, sniffling very hard. The centipede just stands there, moving it's antennas up and down, like it's trying to communicate with her.

"You are...the only one...that understands me," she says between her sniffles, the tears falling off her chin and into the centipede's exoskeleton.

"Everyone just keeps mistreating me and pushing me away... Maybe I should have defected when I had the chance," she weeps, still hugging the centipede. After several minutes of hugging and weeping, she finally leaves the centipede, who just stays by her side.

"Let's go and check the explosives, make sure they are armed," she says with a smile and just like that, the centipede becomes tiny instantly. Centi picks it up and puts it on her left shoulder, before exiting the room.

* * *

 **1st Insertion Force**

 **10 minutes till drop point**

At a height of 150 meters 2 BH-HT, known as Blackout Helicopter-Heavy Transport, are flying towards the drop point that is 50 km away from the underground lab. After the crews had been debriefed, they immediately went to prepare their tanks. Miho expected for them to be airlifted, so she was surprised to see the huge BH-HTs on the helipads. These helicopters had the capacity to accommodate three MBTs inside or become a temporary field hospital. The helicopter itself has great armor and capacity, though it pays for it in the form of low speed and maneuverability. In one helicopter was Miho's tank along with two other, while on the other tank was Odysseus's newly acquired Cerberus light tank, along with the final tank of the Insertion Force.

Miho and her friends, along with the other crews that were on the same helicopter as her, had to stay inside their tanks, since the space was barely enough to fit the tanks.

"We are not flying, we are not flying, we are not flying..." Mako is somewhat chanting from the driver's seat, trying to convince herself that she isn't flying, though her shivering body and quivering voice seem to have a different opinion.

"Mako, you can't even see the height difference, why are you afraid?" Saori scolds Mako, trying to make her to snap out of her fear of heights.

"Maybe if we talk about something, she'll forget we are flying?" Hana suggests at the group.

"What about Miss Nishizumi's powers? They are so cool!" Yukari says excitedly. If it wasn't for being inside the tank, she'd probably be bouncing up and down from her excitement.

"Well, despite what I have seen...I still can't believe they are true. I mean...it's like magic," Saori comments, still apprehensive about all the Ether stuff she has learned.

"But from the information they gave us, it does seem to hold a scientific explanation, even if Ether itself can't be explained fully yet," Hana says to Saori.

"I-I t-think that...these p-powers a-are really curious. T-They seem v-very versatile in...their u-use and a-also seem to be u-unique based on individual," Mako stutters, wanting to contribute in the conversation and maybe forget that she is flying quite high.

"It is too bad we can't learn how to do all these flashy moves," Yukari hangs her head, sad she can't have her own unique powers.

"If we got injected with a Serum, we could develop our own powers," Hana says, which causes Yukari to raise her head in hope. "Though based on its color, the chances of dying by the DNA alteration could be pretty high." And with that, her head falls down faster than a free falling object.

"I hope Mako would get the power to wake up early without help," Saori jokes and everyone laughs at the remark. Even Mako has an amused smirk, forgetting momentarily her fear of heights.

Meanwhile, Miho is sitting at the turret of the Panzer IV, chatting with the other tank commanders.

"Who would have thought the great Nishizumi Miho would lead us in an actual battle," a woman with long black hair and black eyes says, siting on the turret of a T-90U.

"Not only is she a Nishizumi, but she is only nineteen years old and already part of an elite squad," a man with short brown hair and light brown eyes adds, sitting on top of an M1A1 Abrahams.

"I believe that any one of you could lead the Insertion Force reliably and make sure everyone comes back alive," Miho says with a smile.

 _"Oh come on, you don't have to be so humble about your skills,"_ a voice blares through the radio. _"And someone tell me who this annoying blonde woman is!"_ the voice yells.

"That is Odysseus. She might be a bit...weird,but she is an excellent commander," Miho says through her radio.

"Wow, a commander that has been acknowledged by a Nishizumi. You are really lucky Odysseus," the woman on top of the T-90U says, amazed by that fact.

 _"That's right, so you better show me the proper respect shorty!"_ Odysseus' voice is heard through the radio.

 _"Who did you called shorty?!_ " the voice of the tank commander that is in the same helicopter is heard loudly through the radio. Before anyone can respond, a dull clang echoes from the radio and everyone grows curious as to what it was.

"Is everything okay?" Miho asks.

 _"That redhead is scary. She just bashed the blonde's head on the side of their tank,"_ the short commander says, though her voice suggests she is scared right now. Laughter erupts in Miho's helicopter, as the commanders of the other tanks are clutching their sides from laughing very hard and even Miho can't resist the urge to chuckle.

 _"Landing in two minutes!"_ a voice is heard throughout the helicopter and everyone gets on their position.

"This is going to be a really fun trip," the T-90U commander shouts in anticipation of how the mission will go.

As the helicopters start descending, the commander speaks over the comms. _"I wanted to ask, but how did your squad got the nickname 'Black Wolves'?"_ she asks, which piques the interest of the other commanders as well.

"Actually, we didn't picked it. It started as a rumor," Miho says curtly.

 _"Ah, I remember those rumors. There was supposedly a squad of five teenage girls that could complete any mission with the utmost efficiency. Some squads that worked with them even said that they were the most efficient killing machines Blackout ever had. There was also a rumor that they were aggressive like a wolf and kill anyone between them and their objective,"_ the short commander explains through the radio and the other commanders in the same helicopter as Miho eye her with a curious gaze, trying to imagine this cute girl as a ruthless soldier. _"So you can imagine the surprise of most, when it was revealed her squad was the one."_ Indeed, when the reveal of her squad being the Black Wolves was made, almost everyone thought it was a joke. No one could believe that these five beautiful and cute girls could be so...good at their job.

"I remember that time. My damn driver was on the floor, laughing at all the other fools that stood with their mouths open. Even I couldn't believe it was true, but here we are," the T-90U commander points at Miho. "Though it makes sense, since you are a Nishizumi."

 _"Touchdown in 10 seconds!"_ the pilot's voice blares through the cargo bay, shortly followed by a small shaking and the helicopter's ramp opening. After the ramp opens fully, the Panzer IV H, T-90U and M1A1 Abrahams tanks roll out in that order. From the other helicopters exits the Cerberus tank and a modified Type 10.

 _"Remember, you are on your own now, so try to get safely on the lab,"_ the pilot says through the radio, as the two huge helicopters start slowly to rise in the air.

"Thanks a lot for the ride and be safe you too," Miho responds, before cutting the transmission. "All units, report," she orders, having changed to her commander persona of sorts.

 _"Arrow-1 is ready,"_ the T-90U commander responds.

 _"Arrow-2 is ready,"_ the M1A1 commander says.

 _"Arrow-3 is ready,"_ the Type 10 commander says.

 _"We are ready here, OUCH!"_ Odysseus says through the radio, before something hits her on her head. _"Fiiiine, Arrow-4 is ready,"_ she says slowly, like someone just sucked all of her energy.

"To all Arrows, our callsign is Bow; we will now move towards the underground laboratory to stop the Institute once and for all. Arrows 1 and 2,you'll lead the way, Arrow 3 will cover our back. Odysseus, I want you to go and scout the road that passes through the mountains for any enemies and if the roads are in an OK condition," Miho orders.

"Roger!" Everyone responds. While the Cerberus tank shoots forward, the rest of the tanks fall in line, their journey towards the lab beginning. Despite the fact that the plan guaranteed they'd have to face enemies only when they reached the lab, Miho felt that something was really wrong.

* * *

An hour has passed since their landing and the Insertion Force has covered about 30 km. They would have covered a lot more, if it wasn't for the Panzer IV H having a rather slow top speed, going up to 30 km/h when off-road. Odysseus had completed the scouting and found nothing out of the ordinary, thus returning to the rest of the tanks.

After passing through the mountains, they found themselves on a plain yet again, which indicated plenty of opportunities to be ambushed, since they were extremely exposed, especially in airplanes or helicopters. Thankfully, their journey was uneventful, having passed through the mountains without encountering any enemies.

Miho is now standing on her seat, half of her body peeking out of the cupola. The rest of the commanders are doing the same, since that way they have better visibility.

 _This is really weird. We are 20 km away from the lab and there is no sign of enemy forces, not even patrols,_ Miho thinks, growing worried they may be walking in a trap.

 _"How much resistance do you think we will find on the lab?"_ the commander of the Type 10 asks. Only now Miho notices she is a girl with tea colored hair and blue eyes.

 _"Best case scenario, we find only normal infantry. Worst case there are Phantoms, Angels and maybe a couple tanks of theirs,"_ the T-90U commander comments.

 _"I don't think we have anything to worry. I'm sure Miss Nishizumi can use her powers to clear any opposition,"_ the commander of the M1A1 says.

 _"Oh, that's right! We could sim-"_ Before she can finish her sentence, the T-90U erupts in flames, burning everyone except the commander, who manages to jump off the tank in the nick of time. The M1A1 gets impaled by a huge icicle that has fallen from the sky, only the driver having survived. Miho's tank and the Type 10 stop near the wrecks to gather any survivors. The weird thing about this attack is that no enemy is in view, and Miho scans her surroundings furiously to find any indication of the direction these attacks came.

Suddenly, Miho has a weird feeling all over her body, and she can feel her powers trying to activate. "Hey, Odysseus, do you feel that your powers are about to activate?" Miho asks, still scanning her surroundings. By now, the T-90U commander has climbed on top of the Panzer IV and stands on top of the engine deck.

 _"Yeah. Do you think there might be any..."_ Odysseus trails off.

"Odysseus?" Miho asks, before noticing three figures in the distance, a man and two girls. She isn't sure, but she feels like the girls emit some kind of weak pressure.

 _"Continue with the mission Miho, I'll take care of this,"_ Odysseus responds as she jumps down to the ground and starts to walk towards the three figures. Annabelle seems to exit from her hatch and starts tunning to Odysseus. Miho can't hear what they are arguing about, but she can see Annabelle getting angrier by the second, though she finally goes back to the tank, albeit reluctantly. Looking at her, Odysseus nods once, before continuing to the figures.

"Mako, take us to the lab; Odysseus will handle the rest," she orders.

"OK," Mako responds and the tank continues to its intended target.

"Will your friend be alright?" the T-90U commander asks.

"She has powers like me, so she should be fine," Miho responds, though she isn't very sure about it.

 _"She will be fine. Let us continue forwards, time is of the essence,"_ Reiji says through the radio, as if he had heard what the two commanders have been talking about.

As the remaining tanks drive away from them, Odysseus finally reaches the figures, standing 20 meters away from them.

"Hello Major...it's been a while since the last time we saw each other," Odysseus says in Greek, her voice filled with anger and disgust. Her eyes emit immense amounts of killing intent, something that hasn't gone unnoticed by the two girls standing in front of the Major.

"Indeed. Would you like to do some catching up? Though I'm not too sure we have the time for it," he says with a grin.

"Sure. What's the deal with the twins?" she asks, temporarily letting her childhood behavior to surface.

"These girls are Ether users. The program has been going quite well these past two years."

"Two Ether users, huh? What an honor to bring them all the way from our little country just for me," she responds venomously. Activating her powers, the air around her starts flowing outwards, as a white scythe falls on her right hand. The two girls that look exactly the same, with dark brown hair and brown eyes, activate their powers too. The girl on the left materializes a flaming sword, while the girl on the right, a rapier made of ice. Their eyes change color too, bright red and icy white accordingly.

Odysseus twirls her scythe once, before pointing it at the Major. "When I'm done with you, you'll be an unrecognizable blob of meat and bones," she says with a monotone voice, though deep inside she is brewing with hatred.

"I'll have my revenge and no one can stop me. Mors expectet, Major."

And with that phrase, the three Ether users clash their weapons, the energy unleashed scaring the earth, as dirt, soil and chunks of ground start flying everywhere.

* * *

 **A/N: The battle against the Institute has begun! Though, what was Mannheim discussing with Azarin? Who are the twelve and is something more in the Apocalypse and the earthquakes that meets the eye? Also, next chapter is the battle of Tokyo, along with the first aerial fight I'll ever write and probably the escape of the Ooarai Girls. I'm sure Suzuki will make good use of her wrench.** **A** **nyway, a** **s always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and** **there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**


	22. Chapter 22: The Battle of Tokyo

**A/N: Before starting the story, special thanks to SeekerMeeker, gvintheodore, SuperSwanky69 and MadCinder for their OC submission when I asked them. I hope your characters are portrayed well enough. And don't worry MadCinder, your own character will get some screen time too!**

 **Answering to reviews: E: The sister Azarin mentions is Anzu's older sister. Centi and Henry will play a big role in America. As for Elpida killing the twins and how the Ooarai girs will escape, I guess you will find out in the next chapter.**

* * *

 **The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 22: The Battle of Tokyo**

* * *

 **Altitude: 10 km**

 **Distance to Tokyo: 100 km**

 **First Blackout Air Squadron**

In an altitude of about 10 km, fly three jets painted sky blue. The inscription 'Night Witches' is painted on the right of each jet's cockpit, while the insignia of the squad is painted on the left. The insignia is the female symbol inside a circle, with a missile on its left and a broom on its right, everything black in color.

The 'Night Witches', an elite squad that consists of three female pilots with incredible skills, is one of the most prized elite squads Blackout has. The skills these pilots have, allow them to accomplish incredible things and pull off incredible stunts that aren't possible by a normal pilot.

The first member is named Katyusha Zyatsev from Russia, nicknamed Katy by her friends. Her background is not known and many rumors surround it, but the only thing sure is her skills are befit of the title of Ace Pilot. She is cheerful, bright, sunny and always wants to throw a party. She has long brown hair that have been braided to the side and her eyes are dark brown. When not flying, she wears an aviator's jacket above Blackout's standard uniform, which is gray for pilots, along with matching sunglasses. Though she always avoids telling her age, which is 24.

The second member is named Karolin and is 28 years old. She is a tall girl, with long black hair tied up in a bun, black eyes, with an eyepatch on her right eye, and she is from Estonia. Her friends have given her the nickname Grumpy Cat, since she is always grumpy. Because of her past, she appears to be cold and uncaring, and hates the notion of family, as she never had one, but she does care for her friends on the inside, even if she won't admit it.

The third girl is named Abrielle Tank and she is 17 years old, one of the few underage girls in Blackout that can fight. She is from Germany and her friends have given her the nickname "Tanklot",which derives from her last name Tank and being a pilot. She is a very tall girl, with brown hair and blue eyes; two strands spike out like four horns. She likes to hide them with a peak hat, because she is embarrassed by her old friends, who called her "Horny Heroine."

"I am bored!" Katy say loudly through the comms to her rest of her team.

"Come on Katy, don't be like that. We even promised you a party after this mission," Abrielle says with a smile.

"Yay, party!" Katy says cheerfully, raising both of her hands as much as she can inside the cockpit of her jet she is currently flying.

"Why am I still with you?" Karolin sighs, shaking her head.

"Muu, you are such a party pooper, Grumpy Cat," Katy pouts, this time crossing her hands and knocking the guidance stick slightly to the right, causing the plane to tilt slightly and move to the right, before hastily leveling it.

"Be careful Katyusha," Abrielle warns with a stern voice. "You shouldn't be moving your arms inside the cockpit too much."

"Fiiine," she pouts for a moment, before becoming cheerful again." So, what is our mission again?"

"I know that you are an idiot, but can't you remember something for more than an hour?" Karolin grumbles with a grumpy look, not very fond of Kate's selective memory.

"Karolin, talk better to Katyusha. She is your friend and calling her idiot is unacceptable," Abrielle reprimands Karolin, who just ignores her for the most part.

"Thanks Tanklot!" Katy says cheerfully, unfazed by Karolin's comment and glad Abrielle is defending her.

"Anyway, our mission is to provide close air support to the forces that will be attacking Tokyo. We should link with Raptor and Eagle squads in about five minutes and then proceed to Tokyo. We will receive target coordinates from the squad leaders down on the ground. Does that cover you Katy?" Abrielle asks, having simplified the mission briefing for Katyusha.

"Yes, thanks a lot!" Katy says cheerfully.

"I can't believe this girl is 24 years old and behaves like she is 6," Karolin mumbles to herself.

"So, Karolin, how is the new plane?" Abrielle asks, wanting to somehow pass her time.

"If you take into consideration that they are experimental and this will be their first field test, they are pretty good. Handling is not that great for my tastes, the armaments seem adequate, VTOL capabilities are actually very good and speed is okay," she responds, always keeping a grumpy look on her face.

"I think these new planes are awesome! You can do so many tricks!" Katy says loudly as she rolls her plane once.

"Is that why you named them Brooms?" Karolin grumbles...again, not fond of the name Katy registered their planes with.

"We are supposed to be a family of witches, and every witch needs a broom to fly!" Katy responds proudly, puffing her chest lightly.

"We are not a family Katyusha and we are not witches either," Karolin says with a cold tone, which causes Katy to start crying.

"Tanklot, the Grumpy Cat says we aren't a family!" Katy cries loudly.

"Look what you did Karolin! Why are you so adamant about us not being a family?!" Abrielle says in disbelief.

"You know why Abrielle, so don't play the ignorant one," Karolin snaps at her.

"And I saw my father getting murdered in front of me. Should I be cold and harsh towards everyone else because of that, Karolin? Is it so difficult to grasp the concept of family just because you never had one?!" Abrielle shouts at Karolin, Karolin's comment making her angry.

"You two, don't fight!" Katy yells, tears still flowing from her eyes.

As the three "elite" pilots continue to argue, a transmission comes through the open channel.

"To any available forces this Raptor-3! We are under attack by three enemy jets. Eagle squad has been annihilated and-" A sudden explosion is heard, before static feels the open channel.

"Raptor-3 come in," Abrielle says quickly, her voice full of concern.

"Raptor-3, do you copy?" she says again, but only silence greets her.

"They are dead and the enemy jets will probably come for us," Karolin says, her voice as cold as the snow.

A monotone beep starts beeping in Kate's cockpit, indicating a missile lock in her airplane. "I have been locked, evasive maneuvers!" she yells and her fighter dives towards the ground, a smoke trail following her.

"They are already here!?" Karolin says surprised, a beeping noise echoing in her cockpit, forcing her to tilt her fighter to the right and dive to the ground.

"The enemy must be above us!" Abrielle yells, seeing the smoke trail from the missile that is tracking Katy originating from above her. Pulling the guidance stick backwards and causing the plane to rise, she scans the sunny sky. Sure enough, three jets painted white with red lines on their wings dive towards her, their machine guns opening fire and scratching the glass of her cockpit. Abrielle rolls the fighter in the nick of time, passing mere centimeters away from the diving fighters. Gritting her teeth, she pulls the stick as hard as she can and airbrakes the plane, forcing it to do an 180 degrees turn, the G-forces threatening to make her faint. As the plane's speed reaches zero and the stall warning goes off, she acquires a lock in one of the jets and fires a missile, which shoots towards its target. The enemy fighter disperses flares, but the missile ignores them, colliding with its body and a fireball consumes it, only burnt metal falling towards the earth.

"Katy, Karolin, acquire targets and gun them down, we don't have lots of time to spare!" Abrielle yells, as she pursuits another one of the enemies, which performs a barrel roll to avoid her machine gun rounds.

"Roger!" both Katy and Karolin respond, having successfully evaded the missiles that were chasing them. Joining Abrielle, they start hunting a target each, and after a few minutes, the remaining enemy planes fall to the ground as burning wrecks of metal.

* * *

 _"Daddy, why you and Mommy have to go?"_

 _"Sorry sweetie, but it's our job."_

 _"Just be careful out there Ryuu. I'll take care of your daughter until you come back."_

 _"Thanks mother."_

 _"Ryuu, let's go."_

 _"Ryuu."_

"Ryuu."

"Ryuu!"

Snapping his eyes open, Ryuu looks frantically around him. He is currently inside a crater that was created by artillery shells and his head is pounding like a truck just hit him. Clutching it with his left hand, he shakes it a bit, before looking around him. He spots a woman with long black hair and green eyes peeking over the edge of the crater and firing her weapon blindly, as bullets skim across her hands and the top of her head.

"About fucking time you woke up!" she yells at him, ducking inside the crater to reload her weapon.

"Sorry sweetie, but the last thing I remember are artillery shells exploding everywhere," he groans, grabbing his weapon and crouching next to the woman.

"So you conveniently forgot that I dragged your sorry ass in here, while under enemy fire!" she shouts, peeking over the edge again, but this time aiming her sights and firing.

"What can I say, I was knocked out at that time. Knowing you, you just kicked me at the edge and let me roll in here," he grins, peeking out of the edge too to fire his gun. Everywhere he looks, there are soldiers and tanks, both friendly and hostile.

Most have helmets with orange lights, advancing while laying suppressive fire to any Blackout forces. Raising his gun, he starts hitting the advancing soldiers, spending three to four bullets for each one.

"Ten years of marriage and this is what you tell me you ungrateful bastard?!" she yells at him, throwing at his arm her empty magazine.

"Ungrateful?! Listen here-"

 _"Squad five, this is Bastion, what's your status, over,"_ a voice from his earpiece interrupts him.

"This is Squad five leader, Satomi Moe reporting! All but two members are alive, including me, over!" she yells over the gunfire.

 _"Acknowledged Squad five. Squads seven, thirteen and twenty-two are en route to reinforce you. Hold your position until then, over."_

"Understood Bastion, over and out!"

"So, Moe, ready to kick some ass?" Ryuu asks as he points to some Angel units that hover over the middle of the battlefield.

"Shut up Ryuu!" she snaps back at him. Raising her weapon, she fires a small burst of bullets, before one of the Angel units makes a dive to the ground and explodes on impact.

"One down, another dozen to go," she grins, aiming at the next Angel unit that keeps firing on the soldiers below them.

"Duck!" Ryuu yells and tackles Moe to the ground, a shell passing from where her head was mere moments ago. The shell slams at the other side of the crater and explodes, with dirt and metal bits raining everywhere.

"You know, we have a house for those things," she jokes, pushing Ryuu on her side and rising.

"No time like the present!" he smirks, causing Moe to make a short laugh.

"So, what will we do with the tank?" she points at one of the enemy tanks, its gun pointed at them. Before it can fire though, a missile slams on the turret's roof and causes the tank to explode, its turret rising on the air for a brief moment. Tracing the missile's smoke trail, they spot a squad of Blackout soldiers approaching them.

"Seems like reinforcements arrived," Ryuu says as five soldiers get inside the crater.

"Are you Squad five?" one of the soldiers asks, raising his gun to fire at the remaining Angel units.

"What's left of them," Moe answers back.

"We have orders to replace you at this point, you need to go back to HQ and after that you are to go to the right flank."

"OK, good luck guys!" Ryuu shouts and along with Moe, they start retreating towards the HQ. As they are running to the back lines, mortar shells slam all over around them for a brief moment, dirt getting flung all over the place and them.

"I wonder what could possibly flatten such a huge city," Ryuu wonders aloud. Everywhere he looks, he sees nothing but a flat wasteland, with the occasional buildings popping out of the ground. Only the Tokyo Tower and Sky Tree, along with some other smaller buildings, are still standing.

"It wasn't a nuke, or we would be boiling by now. Maybe a huge non-nuclear weapon?" Moe suggests, thinking about it for a moment, before dismissing the subject for another time. As they are running, a huge explosion occurs behind them, its shockwave throwing them on the ground.

"What the hell was that?!" Moe screams, keeping her head down to avoid any shrapnel from hitting her. Huge chunks of ground and concrete, along with strong wings and body parts pass above her, thankfully missing her.

"A huge air-fuel bomb!" Ryuu yells back, eyeing the sideways mushroom that the air-fuel bomb leaves behind after it explodes.

Rising to her feet, she looks with awe at the explosion. As she looks at it though, her danger sense goes off and she dives to her left, the metallic blade from one of the Phantom units cutting some strands of her hair. As she stands up, the Phantom's head jerks sideways and its body falls to the ground, blood gushing from the single bullet hole its head has. At a distance of about five meters stands Ryuu with his pistol smoking.

"Nice reflexes," he says, quickly approaching Moe to see if she is fine.

"I'm fine Ryuu, you don't have to worry," she says, scanning her surroundings for any additional enemies. "Uhm...we may be in trouble," she whispers as her face grows pale.

"What do you mean?" he asks. Following her gaze, he too feels his face being drain from any blood it has. At the distance, a huge tank lumbers slowly towards them, its turret aiming its two massive 150mm cannons at their direction. Flanking it are at least a dozen enemy soldiers, along with four Phantoms and two Angels.

"We are so screwed..." he says, waiting for his inevitable death to come. Instead, several small explosions litter the area where the tank and the enemy forces are, leaving none alive.

 _"To all Squad leaders, this is the Witch Squadron, awaiting coordinates for close air support,"_ both Moe and Ryuu hear a voice saying through their earpieces.

"Thank God, they made it on time," Ryuu sighs in relief, glad he gets to live another day.

"Unless you want to test your luck again, I'd suggest you move it," Moe shouts at him, already retreating further into Blackout controlled territory.

* * *

"Good job Katy, enemy forces destroyed," Abrielle informs Katy, having witnessed her cluster bomb separating and destroying a mass of enemy soldiers and a tank.

"Yay!" Katy says cheerfully.

 _"Witches, this is Bastion, how copy?"_ a voice blades through the radio.

"We copy you Bastion. We are ready to receive target coordinates for bombing and close air support," Abrielle informs Bastion.

 _"We will need one of you at the left, right and center of the frontline. You will receive target coordinates from the squads down on the field."_

"Affirmative Bastion, over and out," Abrielle says. "Katy, take the left flank. Karolin, you take the right; I'll take the center."

"Yay, more fun!" Katy shouts in excitement, tilting her plane left and moving to support the left flank.

"About time we got some action," Karolin grumbles, leaving formation to join the forces on the right flank.

"Guess that leaves me with the center," Abrielle mumbles to herself.

Reaching the frontlines, she spots a squad of five men trying to advance between two fallen buildings. Behind them, a black Type 89 supports them, firing its machine gun and cannon to the enemy squads. Suddenly, the Type 89 goes up in flames and an enemy tank appears behind the enemy squads, who seem like they will overwhelm the five Blackout soldiers at any moment. Slowing the airplane and changing to VTOL mode, she hovers over the five men. Acquiring a lock at the tank, she fires an ASM at it and uses its machine gun to shred most of the enemy soldiers to meat chunks and bloody mist.

 _"Thanks a lot for the help! There are two squads thirty meters to the West stalling enemy forces, but they have taken heavy losses!"_ the leader of the squad Abrielle saved, informs her.

"Roger that, moving to provide close air support," she says, still staying into VTOL mode.

* * *

"Seriously now, why are the enemy jets target only me?!" Karolin grumbles, trying to shake off two enemy jets that are in pursuit. The moment she reached the right flank, two enemy jets appeared from nowhere and started hunting her, so as to limit her from providing close air support to the units below.

"Abrielle, Katy, I have two enemy jets on my tail, can you assist?" she asks over the comms, her plane performing rolls, barrel rolls and sharp turns to throw the enemy's aim off.

"I am still providing CAS to a squad, so I cannot help you right now," Abrielle says.

"I am coming Grumpy Cat, ETA one minute!" Katy says.

"Don't call me Grumpy Cat," Karolin grumbles. "And thanks Katy. Sorry about what I told you earlier."

"It's fine, no problem. Oh, I am right in front of you," she says as she spots Karolin's fighter flying straight to her. "Make a half-roll and pull up on about three seconds!"

"But we will colli-" she tries to protest, but gets interrupted by Katy.

"Now!" Katy yells and Karolin performs a half-roll, pushes the guidance stick down and narrowly avoids a collision as her plane passes on top of Katy's. As she passes above Katy's cockpit, Katy winks at her and Karolin just looks at her with a grumpy expression.

"Game over!" Katy exclaims with a grin as she fires two missiles at Karolin's pursuers. The enemy jets explode into two fireballs and Katy has to rotate her airplane 90 degrees to avoid the flaming wrecks that almost graze her and fall to the ground, only for them to strike the Tokyo Tower and damage it slightly.

"That was fun!" she yells excitedly as she goes back to the left flank to assist the rest of Blackout's forces.

"I think you might need mental help," Karolin says at Katy, who conveniently ignores the comment.

* * *

Inside a large tent sit in front of desks several of Blackout's information specialists, monitoring the progress of the frontline, the squads that are currently deployed and giving directions to how the squads will move, all the while updating a tactical map that is being displayed in the middle of the tent, showing with red the enemy units and with blue the friendly ones.

In front of the tactical map that is being displayed stands Teruo, observing it carefully and shooting orders nonstop.

"Have Squads 55, 23 and 34 fall back slightly and have Squad 35 flank from the left," he orders, using a tablet to draw the fallback line and the movement of the squads. "What's the status of the Second Armored Squad?"

"They are currently moving to the center of the frontline to provide support," one of the specialists responds, checking the status of the Second Armored Squad, along with several other infantry squads that are assigned to him.

"Have the AA units deployed yet?"

"They should be arriving on their designated positions shortly."

Wiping his forehead slightly, he notices a separate window appearing on the tablet he holds. It shows a blue bar and the phrase "Hack Successful" flashing in blue and white colors.

"Overlord, this is Bastion. We have successfully taken control of the orbital weapons platform "Odin"," he says, but keeps looking at the tactical map. Slowly but surely, the flanks of the frontline start taking ground, pushing the enemy back.

 _"Bastion, this is Night Witches. We are rerouting to the closest base for refueling and re-arming, ETA 30 minutes,"_ a transmission comes through.

"Acknowledged Night Witches, good job out there." He says, as he gets a transmission from Blackout's main base.

 _"Bastion this is Overlord, good job on acquiring Odin. Have it target the Institute's HQ but do not fire; it will be our bargaining chip with them,"_ Overlord, the Director's callsign, says to Teruo, keeping an eye on the tactical map Teruo is looking at the moment, back at his office.

Suddenly, an alarm appears on the tablet, its screen flashing red.

"Sir, we have been locked out of Odin's systems," a woman says with a calm voice.

"Can you recover control?" he asks quickly, as a separate screen pops over and shows a silhouette of Odin and it's different systems.

"Impossible. When we took over Odin, a final command was executed and locked us out," another man says, typing on his keyboard as fast as he can.

"Do we know what the command was?"

"It seems the command was for Odin to fire one of its payload at a predetermined set of coordinates..." the man trails off as he checks the coordinates.

"The coordinates are for the underground lab," he manages to say and everyone falls silent.

"Get in touch with the Insertion Force and have them withdraw immediately! What's the status of the hacking progress?" he asks quickly, focusing temporary on Odin's status.

"We managed to take control of Odin again, but the payload has been launched, ETA 2 minutes!" a woman says loudly.

"Have you managed to make contact with the Insertion Force?"

"Negative. It seems the enemy is jamming their signal," the woman responds.

 _"Bastion, this is Overlord. Continue with the assault in Tokyo; I'm sure the Insertion Force got the transmission and is withdrawing as we speak,"_ the Director says and everyone goes back to focus on the forces assaulting the city.

"As you order," Teruo says and dismisses the window that shows Odin's systems, focusing on the Tactical Map once again.

 _I just hope the kids will be alright,_ he thinks, before turning his full attention on commanding the units that are on the battlefield.

* * *

"Are you sure about that?" Misako asks the Director with a concerned expression.

"Are you worried about them, Misako?" the Director asks. Both of them are looking at a small screen that shows Miho and the modified Type 10 from a bird's eyes view. They are currently fighting above the underground lab, trying to thin out the enemy forces that have been sent to stop them.

"Of course I would be! A tungsten rod that has been shot from outer space will hit them in less than a minute and somehow you expect me to believe they'll survive?!" she asks incredulously. Realizing that she has raised her voice to her boss, she quickly lowers her gaze to the floor, her face getting flustered. "I-I am deeply sorry."

"For goodness sake, how many times do I have to tell you I don't mind if you speak to me casually, as long as it's just me, you and Teruo. We are childhood friends after all," he smiles at her and she reluctantly smiles back.

"You just have been knowing me since I have been a baby. You are more than just a childhood friend, you are family," she smiles serenely.

The Director says nothing, but chuckles in response to that. Turning his attention back at the small screen on his desk, he let's another chuckle. "Now, let's see the true power of an Ether user," he smirks in anticipation as the tungsten rod that was launched from Odin hits its target.

* * *

 **A/N: Yay, an early chapter upload! I know it is small, but I wanted to cut it there. Next chapter will have Odysseus' battle, Miho's lab entrance and the Ooarai teams escape. Don't worry, the battle of Tokyo is far from over and we still have to see what the spec ops are doing. So, will Miho survive Odin's strike, or will she perish?**


	23. Chapter 23: Mysteries Upon Mysteries

**The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 23: Mysteries Upon Mysteries**

* * *

"It seems the experiments have been going rather well, Major," Odysseus says with a bored expression, casually twirling her scythe with her right hand.

"Indeed. After collecting as much data as we could from your experiment, we used it on the next batch of subjects. These two girls are actually of the lowest level, yet they can go toe to toe with you," the Major smirks, pointing at the twins in front of him.

After the three Ether users had clashed, a huge crater was created by their energies colliding with each other, throwing chunks of ground everywhere. Having foresaw this, the Major had moved back a fair distance to avoid getting caught in the blast. On one edge of the crater sits Odysseus, her stoic expression and emotionless tone making it very difficult for anyone to read her. On the opposite edge stand the twins, eyeing Odysseus carefully for any movements. They have yet to talk, but they seem like they want to say something. Despite the huge distance that separates them, both the Major and Odysseus can hear each other's voice like they were talking face to face.

"So, you were part of the project after all," Odysseus muses quietly. "I had my suspicions back then, though I wasn't so sure. Is that the reason why the government sent you to oversee us?" The small hazy blue flame that escapes from her eye slowly moves up and down, as if there is wind moving it.

"I'll admit, it was one of the reasons, but I was tasked with getting rid of you and the rest when an opportunity would arise," he says, still keeping a grin plastered on his face. "The government considered you a threat for their plans, so you had to disappear."

"I see," she says in a monotone voice. "Then why did you let me live? Did you think I'd die from hypothermia or my wounds?" she asks, still swirling her scythe.

"You don't remember?" the Major asks her with a surprised look, before starting to laugh. "Haha...ahahahaha! This is hilarious, you actually don't know!" he laughs mockingly. "Then let me enlighten you. You see, for a failure, your powers activating sure was convenient. I'd have put a bullet in that empty head of yours, if it wasn't for that "thing" that killed everyone and almost took my head," he glares at Odysseus, his expression darkening considerably. "Thanks to you, I was almost executed by the idiots on the top. It took a lot of convincing to make them believe you were dead..." Pausing a bit, he takes a step back. "And now I'll make it a reality."

"So, I was saved thanks to my powers...so much for a _failure_ , huh?" she says. Although her face remains emotionless, the Major can feel her grinning like a troll at him. Twirling her scythe one last time, she jumps at the middle of the crater, which is 10 meters deep.

"Eliminate her," the Major orders and the twins start circling the edge of the crater, one from the left and one from the right. Odysseus keeps an eye in both of them, turning her head left and right to see when they will attack.

Reaching the middle of the edge, being opposite from each other, both twins jump high in the air and point their weapons at Odysseus.

"Dragon's Breath!" the girl wielding the flaming sword yells and bright red flames shoot outwards from the sword and towards Odysseus.

"Ice Geyser!" the girl wielding the ice rapier shouts, and the ground below Odysseus starts freezing,the frost extending on the soles of her boots. Sensing danger, Odysseus somersaults backwards and avoids a huge ice shard that shoots upwards from the ground,nearly impailing her. Looking up, she sees flames approaching her, threatening to burn her to a crisp. Odysseus simply swings her scythe horizontaly and a blue dome appears around her. While the flames char the ground all around her, they fail to even scratch the dome, its blue color remaining till the last flames have been extinguished.

"I thought these girls were better than a failure, yet they can't even scratch a single barrier," Odysseus mocks the Major. The two girls fall inside the crater and land 50 meters away from Odysseus with a loud thud, the ground below them cracking a bit and dust getting thrown in the air.

"What did you say?!" the girl with the flaming sword shouts, her bright red eyes full of anger and killing intent.

"Anna, calm down!" the girl with the ice rapier says hastily, her icy white eyes full of concern and fear. "She is trying to make us lose focus."

"So you do talk. Let me make you a proposition then. Throw your weapons down and let me kill the bastard that keeps looking at us," Odysseus points at the Major, who stands at the edge of the crater observing the fight.

"Ha! Why would we fear a weakling like you?!" the flame sword wielder shouts, the flames on her sword intensifying.

"Yet your hands are trembling from fear," Odysseus points at the girl's hands that tremble slightly. "You are what? 15 years old? I am giving you a chance to stay alive."

"Shut up!" Anna yells and the flames on her sword burst outwards violently, the heat scorching the ground directly under the sword. Even her sister has to move away a bit from the heat the sword emits.

"Heed my words carefully. If you don't step aside, I will kill you," she warns, her expression remaining neutral all the time. "I never show mercy to anyone that stands in my way and you are no exception to this rule." The hazy flame in her left eye intensifies and starts moving more violently and she starts editing huge amounts of killing intent.

A shiver runs through Anna's spine, as she starts to tremble harder and harder. Her sister too is shivering from fear, though she manages to keep her composure much better.

"You have received your orders," the Major yells, keeping his arms behind his back. "Now kill her!"

"So, little girls...what will you do?" Odysseus asks, eyeing the two girls in front of her.

"W-We have our orders, s-so..." Anna's sister musters the strength to say, which takes Odysseus by surprise, though it isn't shown on her face. She expected the girls to just step aside, since their lives are on the line.

"Don't blame me for your deaths then," she quietly sighs, bracing herself for the upcoming battle.

"You are going down!" Anna roars and shoots forwards, leaving behind her a trail of bright red fire. Anna's sister shoots forwards too, but she leaves a path of ice behind her instead.

"It's your funeral," Odysseus comments, raising her scythe to defend herself.

Reaching Odysseus, Anna jabs the sword forward, aiming at her heart. Odysseus parries the sword with the scythe's pole and forces it to move diagonally upwards, barely missing her head. Anna grins at that and causes the sword to burst violently with flames, which quickly cover Odysseus.

"How you like that?!" Anna laughs, before getting kicked by Odysseus up in the air, landing all the way to the edge of the crater.

"You'll have to try better than that," Odysseus says quietly, now looking at Anna's sister, who is charging straight towards her. "How naive," she says and swinging her scythe, the blade cuts Anna's sister in half and her figure explodes to tiny bits of ice.

"What?" Odysseus raises an eyebrow, baffled at where her enemy has disappeared.

"You are mine!" she hears a voice yelling from above her and turning behind her, she finds Anna's sister falling towards her. As everything slows down, Odysseus spots her Reaper materializing behind Anna's sister and hitting her with the pole of its own scythe on her sides, sending her crashing at the side of the crater.

"Maria!" Anna yells, having witnessed the whole attack. Grunting, she lodges her sword at the ground, using it as a leverage to stand up and support herself. "I'm going to kill you!" she shouts angrily.

"You cannot win, I am stronger then you two," Odysseus declares, her Reaper standing to her left.

"Tsk, how much problems will this girl create for me," the Major clicks his tongue, seeing the battle is not in his favor.

"I-I'm okay Anna, _cough, cough_...just a little roughed up," Maria says softly, coughing some drops of blood. Her ribs feel like they have broken and her whole body aches. Rising to her feet, she smiles weakly at Anna.

"A little roughed up?! You must have at least 2 broken ribs, if not more!" Anna yells incredulously, not convinced by her sister's attempt to deceive her.

"I'll be fine. What do we do about her and that...thing that is with her?" Maria asks, clutching her left side with her right hand.

"I have an idea, but I'll need you to keep them at bay," Anna says quickly, looking at the two figures that still stand at the center of the crater. "Think you can manage that?"

"I'll try, but no promises," Maria responds. Applying her powers to her left side and grunting a bit by the sharp pain that floods her brain for a moment, she raises her rapier and points it at Odysseus. "Oh elements of the unknown, grant this soul the power she needs in this desperate time," she starts chanting and 1-meter long icicles start forming all around her, their sharp edges pointing at Odysseus.

 _Is she chanting a...spell?_ Odysseus wonders, her curiosity peaked by what she seeing in front of her.

"I command the element of ice and so i plead, the ones above us all to strike our enemies!" Maria finishes the incantation and the icicles shoot forward. Odysseus merely raises her scythe and a blue barrier appears in front of her. The icicles collide with the barrier and shatter to pieces, not even scratching it.

"That was anticlimactic," Odysseus murmurs, feeling very disappointed from the attack she just received. Maria merely grins at her, pointing at the space above her. "What the..." Odysseus manages to say before a dozen 5-meter long icicles fall from the sky at her position. Swinging her scythe, she cuts one of the icicles in half, its pieces striking the ground next to her.

As all the icicles fall down on earth, Maria loses sight of Odysseus. "Maybe we got her?" she wonders aloud, before a huge explosion throws ice chunks everywhere. As the clouds of vaporized water settle down, Maria sees Odysseus standing in the middle of where the explosion had occurred, gazing at Maria like a predator eyeing its pray. "How strong is she?" Maria gasps, when see notices her rapier is starting to glow and release mist, like when dry ice starts evaporating.

"Ready for our trump card?" Anna shouts, panting slightly. Her own sword glows red, its flames acting like water and falling to the ground.

"I'm ready!" Maria yells and grabs her rapier with both hands.

"Let's do it!" Anna yells and both girls lodge their weapons on the ground and start channeling their powers to it. The ground starts cracking and watery flames start seeping out from one side, while on the other side, Frost starts covering it. When the two powers meet, the whole ground explodes and steam covers the battlefield, dropping visibility to virtually zero. Thankfully, Odysseus chose to remain on the defensive, casting a barrier all around her, which saved her. Looking around, she swings her scythe and shatters an ice icicle, its fragments harmlessly passing her. Hearing a footstep behind her, Odysseus turns around and tries to raise her weapon to defend herself, but she gets hit by Anna's sword, piercing her right side and barely missing her spine.

"Gah!" Odysseus gasps, blood getting vomited from her mouth. The Reaper tries to strike Anna, but gets pierced by at least ten icicles all over its body. Releasing a hair raising scream, it slowly starts to crumble to dust, until nothing remains.

"What were you saying?" Anna grins. Retracting her sword, even more blood gashes out of the stab wound, with Odysseus clutching the wound with her left hand as hard as she can, trying to stop the bleeding. Falling to her knees, she feels her powers deactivating and with one last swing at Anna, who effortlessly avoids it, her scythe vanishes.

"Fuck you," she growls, raising her head to look at Anna.

"You really should know your place, insect," Anna mocks, kicking Odysseus in the head. Crashing to the ground, she tries to lift herself, but her hands give in and she falls to the ground again. A pool of blood starts forming around her, and her head feels really dizzy. Unless a miracle happens, she'll pass out from blood loss and probably die.

"It's a shame, if I am honest," the Major says, having descended the crater with help from Maria. As he approaches Odysseus, he motions to the twins to lift her up. Moving to her sides, the twins grab one of Odysseus' hands each and lift her. Standing in front of her, he grabs her limp head and raises it so she can look at his eyes. "It seems you have so much potential...you just needed a bit of pushing." Odysseus tries to activate her powers and for a brief second, a bright blue hazy fire forms in her left eye, but it quickly gets extinguished and Odysseus vomits blood, her body barely able to function.

"I'll...kill you...even I have to die," she croaks, her eyes slowly closing.

"Now, now, you can't die yet, I need to ask you a question." he says, and both twins channel their powers in Odysseus' hands.

"Aaaaaaarghhh!" she screams as her right arm gets burned and her left chilled. She feels as if she will explode, her nervous system overloading with pain signals. "It hurts?!" she says through gritted teeth, the pain becoming unbearable. Tears start flowing from her eyes and Maria stops channeling her power, feeling guilty for causing unnecessary pain. Her sister on the other hand just keeps channeling her power, until Odysseus' hand is burnt to crisp.

"Where did you hide the second vial of Serum White?" the Major demands.

"I-I don't remember..."

"Unless you want to experience the same pain again, I suggest you answer my question."

"I told you...I don't remember!" she tries to shout, but vomits blood again.

"This getting us nowhere," the Major murmurs to himself, when he notices Odysseus saying something.

"I'll kill you all," she says with the last bits of her strength, her head hanging limply and her body being supported by the twins, who hold her arms.

"The one who is going to die is you," he says, unholstering a pistol from his right thigh and aiming it at Odysseus' head. "Send my regards to your childhood friends, what were their names? Ah, yes, Calliope and Chara. I'm sure they'll be happy to reunite with the one that killed them," he smirks.

"You...killed them..." Odysseus whispers loud enough for the Major to hear her.

Looking at her for a brief moment, he starts laughing harder and harder. "You seriously don't remember even that?! Hahaha, this is so funny! Don't you remember how you gutted your so called _friends_ , during the first stage of the Serum Project?" the Major laughs and Odysseus' eyes widen in response as much as they can.

"N-No...y-you are lying," she says in a quivering voice. "N-No, th-this...it is a lie, it can't be true!" she says, raising her voice with each word she utters. Repressed memories start coming back, Odysseus relieving them once again. "No, this is a lie!" she yells, straining her body even more and coughing blood once again.

"But it is true. I was personally overseeing the battle. You killed them Elpida. You should have seen their crying faces while they were begging you to spare them," he grins and Odysseus' memory of that scene resurfaces, her mind breaking for the first time in three years.

" _ **Aaaaaaaaarghhhhh!**_ " she roars and the air around her starts pulsing violently outwards. The twins get pushed 20 meters back, their feet digging on the ground, while the Major gets flown 30 meters backwards, crashing to the ground and rolling another 20 meters.

"Anna, her power is..." Maria gasps as she can feel Odysseus' signature is getting exponentially bigger by each passing second. Dark clouds start gathering in the sky above them, swirling counterclockwise.

"We need to deal with her right now!" Anna yells, shielding her face with her arms from the winds that have been created by Odysseus' power. Suddenly, a pillar of blue energy shoots from directly above Odysseus, covering her and everything in an 1-meter radius away from her with a blinding blue light. A shockwave is released the moment the pillar hits the ground, throwing the twins even further from where they stand. As they roll to a stop, both of them look at the blue pillar that slowly gets smaller and smaller, until it disappears. The air has stopped pulsing; in fact, it has become still. In the center of where the pillar was sits a lone blonde girl, but her appearance is completely different from how it was when the battle started. Her eyes retain the characteristic bright magenta and bright blue color in the right and left eye respectively, but there is no hazy blue fire escaping from the left eye. What's unnerving is that her eyes have vertically slit pupils, like a cat's. Her hands are clad in elbow-length gauntlets, colored white, and a white breastplate has appeared on her chest. Two medium-sized wings made of blue energy protrude from her back, being at least 2 meters long.

" **Haha**..." Odysseus laughs quietly, keeping her back turned on both of the twins. Standing up like a puppet that its puppet strings are being pulled, she starts laughing louder and louder, before turning to face the now standing twins.

"What the..." Anna whispers, growing pale at what she sees. Whatever wounds Odysseus may had, are non-existent now, like she was never part of a battle. Her face has a grin so twisted and terrifying, that even Joker would cower like a girl if he ever saw one like this.

"Oh God, p-please h-help us," Maria whispers with a quivering voice, her hole body trembling like a leaf.

" **I killed them...I killed my own friends! Isn't that hilarious!?** " she yells loudly, looking at the clouded sky with eyes wide open. " **And now I'll kill you two,** " she grins even more and the girls can feel their bodies getting frozen in fear just by looking at her. Snapping her gaze at the twins, Maria lets a small yelp escape her mouth, taking several steps away from Odysseus.

"W-We defeated y-you once...s-so...s-so we can defeat you a-again," Anna shouts. Every muscle in her body is tensed, adrenaline coursing through her veins. Fear, terror and desperation slowly fill her head, her hands trembling harder and harder as she raises her sword.

" **Really now? In the sorry state you are?!** " Odysseus mocks and takes a step forward, the ground below her cracking. " **I'll make you suffer so much, plunge you so deep in despair, that you will beg to die,** " she says slowly with her twisted smile, walking slowly towards Anna. " **Not even God will be able to save you.** "

Anna can feel her body moving away from Odysseus on its own, her mind getting overloaded with fear. "D-Dragon's Breath!" she yells in a fit of panic and bright red flames shoot out of the sword. Odysseus merely swings her scythe vertically and a thin layer of energy gets thrown to the flames, cutting them in two.

" **Too bad, this was your only chance to survive,** " Odysseus says playfully and promptly disappears from view.

"Where is-" Anna manages to say, before finding herself falling to the ground. Crashing down, she can feel a hot liquid running from her thighs. Trying to stand up, she finds to her horror that she can't use her legs. Rolling to her back, her face becomes as white as snow. Her legs from the middle of her thighs and down have been cut, the dismembered legs lying a few centimeters away from their owner. "Aaaaaaaaarghhhh!" Anna screams in pain, clutching her left thigh...or rather what has remained attached to her body. Tears start flowing from her eyes, the pain becoming unbearable.

"Noooooooo!" Maria yells, running to her sister and kneeling besides her. "W-We need t-to take you b-back, you n-need medical attention immediately!" she cries with teary eyes, letting her weapon fall to the ground and forgetting about the psychotic murderer that stalks the battlefield for now.

" **Gotcha,** " Odysseus whispers to her right ear and grabs the top of Maria's head with her left hand, like a basketball player grabs a basketball with one hand. Lifting her in her own height effortlessly, Maria flails her legs as hard as she can, trying to pry Odysseus' hand open with her own two, but failing to free herself.

"Let her go!" Anna yells at Odysseus, slowly crawling with her hands to where she stands.

" **Know your place, insect,** " Odysseus growls and pins Anna's head to the ground with her left foot. " **Now, enjoy your sister's screams of agonizing pain and suffering!** "

Channeling her energy through her left hand, Odysseus literally hijacks and fries Maria's brain, as her screams resound in the air. Anna is yelling something, though her voice is barely audible from the screams that fill the air. A blue needle of energy protrudes from Maria's head slowly, tilting towards the back. After a few moments, Maria stops moving, her arms and legs hanging limply in the air. Releasing her grasp on her head and letting Maria to fall to the ground, Odysseus grins yet again, taking a step backwards. " **Rise,** " she commands and Maria rises like a puppet whose strings are pulled.

"M-Maria...a-are you okay?" Anna whispers in terror, seeing her sister's dull and lifeless eyes.

" **She is mine now...to do as I please,** " Odysseus says, approaching her new "puppet" from behind and embracing her. " **She is so beautiful,** " she says softly, eyeing Maria seductively and running a finger slowly from the top of her chest till her lower parts.

"Get your filthy hands off of her, you psychotic bitch!" Anna yells in anger, her eyes emitting pure hatred towards the blonde.

" **Now, now, little girls like you shouldn't use such language to your elders,** " Odysseus says playfully, waving a finger to her. " **I think a punishment is in order**." Grabbing Maria from the neck, she throws her high into the air. Suddenly, her energy wings become tendrils and shoot upwards in the sky, impailing Maria's body and ripping it to pieces, with blood, meat and organs raining down on the ground. Anna has a horrified look on her face, having just witnessed her sister's brutal execution. Her mouth hangs open, being too shocked to even breath.

" **Hahahaha, there's the look I love seeing!** " Odysseus throws her head back and laughs like a lunatic, drawing pleasure from Anna's expression. " **Though I think it is time you departed for the afterlife. Send my regards to your sister,** " Odysseus smiles and one of her tendrils impales Anna, entering through her mouth and exiting from between her legs. Raising her in the air, the tendril starts slamming the poor girl's body on the ground till it is nothing more than a pulp of meat and bones and with a swift move, it sends the remains flying at the side of the crater. "Now, where is the Major? I still want to play some more," she says in a childish manner, looking around the crater for her final target. Her tendrils mold together and slowly shape the energy wings she had in the start. As she walks towards the direction where the Major was blown by the winds, two streams of white energy fly to her, swirling around her white gauntlets for a bit, before entering her body.

"Ah, I feel much better," she sighs in relief, feeling her lost energy coming back. "Seriously, these fights are so draining," she complains as she scans her surroundings. "Where are you, where are you, I just want to play with you," she sings in an innocent tone, which greatly contradicts her true intentions.

"Hm, what is this?" she wonders aloud, eyeing a body whose chest is moving up and down. "Ah, Major! You are alright!" she exclaims happily, hopping towards him. "And here I thought you had died. Thankfully, it seems like you are only injured!"

Standing 5 meters away from him, Odysseus notices his arms and legs are bent in a really weird and unnatural way. "Ouch, that must hurt," she cringes a bit.

"Who would have thought...that I would be killed by you...of all people," the Major utters with a raspy voice, his breath being rugged and shallow.

" **Karma's a bitch Major,** " Odysseus giggles in a sinister way, a twisted expression that promises pain and agony plastered on her face. " **At last, I'll have my revenge!** " Odysseus shouts and her wings morph into tendrils once again, rising from behind her back and pointing their sharp edges on the Major. " **At last, I'll avenge my friends and family!** " she roars and the tendrils shoot forwards to strike their target.

A breaking noise is heard in front of the Major and space itself seems to crack and break, as a figure gets out of the huge crack and swings a Greatsword, cutting all the tendrils in one motion.

"Hello Major. Master sent me to bring you back," the figure, a small girl that is about 12 years old, informs the Major, as the crack from which she exited closes.

"You are late," the Major frowns, still lying on the ground and looking at the clouded sky.

"My apologies, but Mas-"

"Who the fuck are you?" Odysseus rudely interrupts her, glaring dagger at the little girl who just stopped her from having her long sought revenge. "And what's with the whole loli getup?" she says, eyeing her potential enemy from top to bottom. The girl has short curly blonde hair and a pair of dark green eyes. She wears a two-piece dress colored purple and on top of her head sits a small purple beret.

"Who I am is of no concern to you. My orders are to retrieve this man and return, so I'd appreciate it if you stopped trying to kill him," the girl states, unfazed by Odysseus' appearance.

" **Then go to hell with him!** " Odysseus screams and her tendrils shoot to the girl, who just stands still. Raising her hand, a crack forms in the space in front of her and shallows the tendrils, before closing and cutting them. "What the-" she says, before she feels her body being pierced by something. Looking down, she finds one of her blue tendrils protruding out of her abdomen. Grabbing the tendril, she pulls it out of her and the huge hole that she has, starts healing at an alarmingly fast rate. " **It will take more than my own attack to kill me,** " Odysseus frowns, crushing the tendril with her left hand.

"That's unexpected," the girl says in a surprised tone, expecting Odysseus to just flop to the ground and bleed to death. "But it matters not, you are not a target...yet." A purple dome covers her and the Major, like the one Odysseus used to protect herself against the twins. Odysseus responds to that by materializing her scythe and striking the dome, not even scratching it.

The girl kneels down and carefully picks up the Major with her left hand. Swinging her Greatsword, she creates another crack, its blackness sucking the light around it.

"It's useless, you cannot break this barrier," the girl comments, as Odysseus keeps striking with her weapon. "You are too weak to-" she says, but gets interrupted.

" **Shut up!** " Odysseus roars and with another strike, she manages to break a part of the dome that is big enough for her to pass through, a small shockwave being created at the impact point, throwing dust everywhere. " **You are not getting away!** "

Turning her face so that she looks at Odysseus with her left eye only, it starts glowing bright purple. "Displace," she mutters and everything in front of her in a cone gets flown away, like a shockwave just came out of nowhere. As the dust settles down, Odysseus finds herself all the way at the edge of the crater, the force of the attack having sent her flying through the air and crashing on the ground. Standing up, she finds out her powers have deactivated and her head is pounding like crazy.

"My head," she groans, clutching the back of it and feeling something wet running down her neck. "Where is that girl and the Major?" she says, looking around for them. "So...they escaped," she sighs as she spots a crack closing at a distance of about 150 meters.

Sitting on the ground, she can feel her head becoming heavy and her vision blurry. She swears she can hear voices yelling something, but they feel too far away to understand what they are saying. She just sits there, gazing in the distance. She starts wondering, how her friends are. Falling to the ground, she starts losing consciousness, as her vision starts blackening. "I'm fine," she croaks for no apparent reason, before fainting.

* * *

 **United States of America**

 **Hope's Peak, California**

 **03:00 AM**

In a small town named Hope's Peak, situated East of Los Angeles, about 50 km away, a lone figure walks in the streets, which are devoid of any humans, except for the occasional patrol of armed guards that act as the police, making sure no crimes are happening. The town had been built shortly after the earthquakes had stopped by survivors that were living in Los Angeles, so most buildings were made by wood or metal sheets and their appearance was...not pretty, to say the least. They were some concrete buildings here and there, but they probably were owned by rich people. After all, even in the apocalypse, money keep ruling over everything. As it keeps walking, he figure notices that more and more people start appearing on the streets.

Turning left on an intersection, the figure finds itself on a road that is bustling with activity, as people are entering and exiting shops of various kinds and even some cars roll on the road, though they are dwarfed by the crowd of people. Making her way to a bar named "End of the Line", she stops in front of the entrance, where a tall and fairly bulky man dressed in black stands, holding a clipboard.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but I'll have to ask you to remove your hood," the man says professionally, looking at the woman in front of him. The woman complies and lowers the hood of the cloack she wears. The man notices her long dark brown hair and dark brown eyes to be somewhat familiar, though he can't be certain if he has seen her somewhere. "Your name please," the man asks.

"Shi...Shirley," the woman says with a stoic expression, her tiny pause passing unnoticed. After scribbling her name on the clipboard, the man opens the door to the bar.

"Have an enjoyable experience," the man says and the woman nods, entering inside a small hallway. As she walks, she spots small posters at the sides of the hallway, showing the figure of a woman and on the bottom, the phrase "Women's Night" is written with red letters. Reaching the end of the hallway, she pushes two heavy black doors open and enters the bar. It was a fairly nice-looking room, with loud music and several old looking bulbs providing just enough light, so the customers could at least see where they were walking. Looking around, she spots a corner table where a woman, that has frilly blonde hair that go till her waist and a pair of blue eyes sits with a child no older than 12 years old, that has orange eyes and long silver hair, and she makes her way towards them. Sitting across them, the woman, presumably the mother of the child that sits next to her, eyes her for a moment before speaking. "The Phantom has come and seeks revenge."

"The Reaper reaps, the souls of the undead," the woman finishes the sentence, before adding. "It's been a while Jennifer."

"Shiho!" the woman says loudly, standing up and leaning across the table to hug Shiho, who maintains her stoic expression. "I'm so happy to see you again! It's been 10 years since I last saw you!"

"I'm happy seeing you too. How have you been?" Shiho actually smiles a bit, though it is too subtle to be seen with the low lighting the room has.

"You know, running from the factions, taking care of my sweet daughter, the usual stuff," Jennifer waves her hand dismissively.

"How have you been Celia?" Shiho asks the little girl, turning to face her.

"F-Fine," the girl answers back timidly, feeling a bit intimidated by Shiho.

"That reminds me, where are your daughters? Are they not with you?" Jennifer asks with a confused look.

"No, they are still in Japan. I wished for them not to get involved in our own problems," she says with a serious expression. "Though I do wonder if they are fine."

"Come on, I'm sure they will be fine. They are Nishizumi after all."

"I have faith in them they will persevere. I just hope..." she trails off, not finishing her sentence. "Anyway, I think you know why I am here."

"So...it's about that thing?" Jennifer says slowly, lowering her voice considerably.

"Yes. I'll need transportation and supplies to cross the country."

"That's not possible. The factions are in war with each other and passing the borders is akin to suicide," Jennifer hisses quietly, looking at Shiho with concerned eyes.

"Whatever may befall us, we advance," Shiho states, looking at Jennifer with her most serious expression. "You know what will happen if they build the machine, Jennifer. Nowhere will be safe and even worse, it could threaten the whole world."

"I know, I know," she sighs, thinking about it for a second. "Fine, I'll provide you with what you need, but..." she catches Shiho's hand and a grin appears on her face. "...we have a lot of catching up to do. It's been 10 years since I last saw you, after all."

Shiho can feel a shiver running through her spine, knowing that her American friend tends to be a bit...privy on the personal lives of others.

"Fine by me, but what about your daughter?" Shiho asks, seeing that Celia has already fallen asleep.

"Don't worry, she'll be fine," Jennifer dismisses Shiho's question. "Let me go grab a couple of drinks first, though," she says and bolts to the barman to take a couple of drinks.

 _Knowing her, she'll probably come back with two or three bottles of whiskey,_ Shiho sighs quietly, preparing herself mentally for the upcoming barrage of questions.

* * *

 **A/N: So, the battle came out a little bit larger than I thought, so I had to postpone Miho's Insertion at the lab and the escape of the other girls. To compensate for that, here is a scene that raises a ton more questions at what the hell is going on. A** **nyway, a** **s always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and** **there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**


	24. Chapter 24: Prison Break

**The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 24: Prison Break**

* * *

"Hanna, target at 2 o'clock! Saori, keep laying suppressive fire!" Miho yells as yet another tank comes out from the entrance of the underground lab, its white metallic body shimmering at the evening sun.

After the Insertion Force had left Odysseus to deal with the three unknown figures that appeared out of nowhere, they covered the rest of the distance without any problems, but when they reached the entrance of the underground lab...all hell broke loose. The entrance was at the foot of a hill with a narrow road leading to a flat area. On the left was another narrow road flanked by other hills on its sides. On the right was a narrow road that lead to the city of Tokyo, which was visible from their position. Despite the decoy attack that was happening in Tokyo, the enemy had positioned a reasonably big force to defend the lab. After arriving, at least 40 soldiers with helmets that had orange lights at where the eyes were supposed to be, "Gears" as they had been nicknamed, due to their computer-like nature of following orders, along with 5 Angel units and 2 Mammoth heavy tanks greeted them with small arms fire and cannon reports. Thankfully, the Insertion Force was led by the modified Type 10, so it tanked most of the shells and bullets, that would have probably ripped the Panzer and the Cerberus tanks to shreds. After 5 minutes, only 30 of the Gears remained and the 2 Mammoth tanks had been destroyed.

"Leave it to us," Reiji says calmly through the radio as the Cerberus moves to the right in order to flank the Mammoth. Being spotted by it, the Mammoth fires its 130mm cannon but misses by a wide margin, the shell crashing on a nearby hill and throwing dirt in the air. Another cannon report is heard and a shell slams on the side of the Mammoth's turret, but due to its angle, the shell makes a small dent at it, before bouncing sideways.

"No penetration," Hana informs Miho and Yukari immediately loads another shell in the gun breach.

"Mako, take us to its left flank. Saori, keep firing the machine-gun, we can't let them near the tank," Miho orders, her voice getting drowned from the sounds of bullets pinging off the tank and the bow machine-gun spraying lead everywhere.

"Roger," Mako says and the tank starts rolling on its left, attempting to flank the Mammoth tank.

"Do these guys get produced in an assembly line or something?!" Saori yells, emptying another box of ammunition at the seemingly endless numbers of enemies. "Reloading!"

As the Type 10 fires another shot at the Mammoth tank, its remote controlled machine-gun at the top of the turret starts unloading its rounds at the Angel units that hover in the air above, preventing them from diving on top of the tanks. The driver of the M1A1 Abrams peeks from the back of the Type 10's turret, where he is taking cover, and a bullet barely misses his head, prompting him to lower his head back in cover to avoid any misfortunate accidents.

"I didn't sign up for any of this!" he yells, as more bullets start hitting the Type 10.

"Quit your whining," the T-90U commander says to him, as she too is taking cover behind the turret.

"I'll whine as much as I want!" he snaps at her.

"Whatever," she says, before noticing one of the Angel units crashing next to the tank. Though his body is quite mangled from the fall, the weapon seems usable, so with no second thought, she jumps from the tank to the ground, grabs the assault rifle that lays near the dead body and bolts back behind the turret, climbing the tank at record times, bullets barely missing her body.

"Are you nuts?!" the M1A1 driver yells incredulously at her.

"At least now I can fight back," she says, peeking at the top of the turret and firing at any Gears she can see.

Meanwhile, the Cerberus has managed to flank the Mammoth, narrowly avoiding shells from it, with one of them miraculously hitting at such an angle, it bounced upwards in the sky, before falling down on earth. Getting behind the Mammoth, the Cerberus rocks sideways as it unleashes a 130mm shell on its engine block, which starts smoking heavily.

"The Mammoth is down," Reiji informs the rest of the Insertion Force, as the Cerberus returns back to the others.

"Copy that, Reiji. Everyone, focus fire on the infantry units! If we defeat them, then we can enter the-" Miho gets interrupted from finishing her sentence, as a loud buzz suddenly feels the interior of the tank.

"What is that?" Saori wonders aloud, failing to notice that the sounds of small arms fire have stopped completely.

"Miss Nishizumi, I think the buzzing is coming from outside," Yukari tells Miho.

"I'll check it out," she says and opening her cupola and pulling her body halfway out, she notices that everyone is looking behind her and to her left. Following their gazes, her jaw drops at the spectacle that unfolds in front of her. In the distance, a huge pillar of blue light rains down on earth through dark clouds that somehow sprouted out of nowhere.

"Miss Nishizumi is someth-" Yukari asks as she exits her hatch to witness the pillar of blue light too.

"What in God's name is this?!" Saori whispers in awe, her eyes widening in amazement.

"Oh my. This is...quite..." Hana trails off, not finding any words to describe how she feels. Mako says nothing, but looks at the pillar with curiosity, trying to understand it.

"I...I think Odysseus might be the one who created it," Miho says slowly, having composed herself enough to speak. "This...pillar...was made from Ether. I could feel its energy from over here and it felt quite familiar to that of Odysseus," Miho explains quietly, still looking at the direction of the pillar.

"That thing is like one of HAVOC's laser strikes!" the Type 10's commander gasps and Yukari's eyes start sparkling.

"You mean the American satellite that was launched some years ago, equipped with a state of the art laser focusing weapon capable of penetrating the atmosphere and annihilating anything the beam hits?!" Yukari screams like a fangirl and everyone gives her weird looks. "What?"

"You sure do know a lot of things," Miho smiles a bit awkwardly and the rest of the girls giggle at that remark.

"Sorry to interrupt your chat, but...where all the soldiers went?" the T90-U commander asks, looking at the now empty lab entrance, its huge metal doors laying open. Everyone looks back at the entrance with confused looks.

"But the soldiers were there just a moment ago," Saori says, baffled at this turn of events.

"Maybe they retreated while we were preoccupied?" Hana suggests.

"Then why leave the entrance open?" Mako counters.

"Hey, where the fuck do you think you are going?!" Miho hears the Type 10's commander yelling through the open channel and Miho notices that a tank is missing.

"Reiji, what's going on?" she says quickly.

"Well...Annabelle was really concerned about Odysseus, so she is driving the tank back to where we left her," Reiji responds back.

"If that pillar was made by Odysseus, either her powers have gone out of control or she has gone insane!" Annabelle's voice blares through the radio, full of worry and concern.

"It's okay, you go check on Odysseus. We will secure the lab's entrance and then enter," Miho says and cuts the transmission.

"Are you sure about that? It could backfire really badly," the Type 10's commander warns Miho.

"I am sure. Anyway, let's secure the-" Miho stops her sentence as a man appears in front of the lab.

"Hello, Subject 23. It's been quite a while...since we saw each other," the man says, his hand behind his back, a smile etched on his face. Everyone snaps their gazes at him, eyeing him carefully.

Miho can feel faint traces of Ether at him. _His voice sounds familiar,_ she thinks, before her eyes widen in realization. "No...i-it can't be... Y-You are Mannheim?" she stutters, as she remembers the dream she had a couple days ago. Yukari, Hana and Saori gasp at this sentence and even Mako widens her eyes a bit.

"So you do remember me. I thought your memory was wiped out when your powers went out of control," he comments, looking a bit skeptical.

 _Then that means my dream was a memory. But if it was a memory than that means... Oh no, Sakura._ Miho can feel her hurt sink, as she recalls the whole dream she had after she fainted.

"A girl named Sakura! Do you know her?!" she yells quickly, her expression becoming more worried by the second.

"Ah, you are referring to Subject 22, codenamed Winter. I do know her, she was paired with you during the experiments," Mannheim answers in a bored voice.

"Then...is she...d-dead?" Miho asks in a whisper, her stomach churning and make her feel like she is about to vomit.

"I think I answered enough questions for now. If you want to know the rest of the truth, go to the lab's lowest level." With that Mannheim swings his left arm sideways and the soldiers that had vanished reappear, aiming their guns at Miho and the others. "If you survive, that is," he grins and the Gears open fire. The girls instinctively duck inside the tank and seal their hatches, bullets pinging off of the tank's armor. Mannheim walks inside the lab's entrance and the doors behind him start to close.

"Does this guy have powers too?!" Saori yells, spraying bullets with her bow machine-gun to cover the T-90U commander and the M1A1 driver.

"They appeared out of nowhere," Mako comments, looking at the enemy, whose numbers are slowly but steadily decrease.

"What is this?" Hana points at a Gear, who is holding a rectangular tube over his shoulder, aiming it at the Type 10.

"Miss Nishizumi, that looks like a rocket launcher!" Yukari yells a little too late, as the soldier fires the rocket, which soars through the air at the Type 10. A second later, an explosion is heard as the rocket gets destroyed by the tank's A.P.S. (Active Protection System).

"Don't worry about us, we can handle rockets just fine," the Type 10 commander says smugly.

"Then take point, we need to clear-"

"To all units in the Insertion Force, this is Watcher 2-3. Odin has fired one of its payloads at your coordinates, estimated time of arrival, 1 minute and 3 seconds. We recommend immediate withdrawal," a voice blares through the open channel and everyone inside the tank freeze.

"Watcher 2-3, this is the commander of the Insertion Force, do you copy?" Miho asks quickly, but no answer comes back. "Mako, can we escape the payload?" Miho asks Mako.

"Even if we exit the crater radius, the shockwave will probably hurl as like paper in the wind," she responds back, her face slightly pale.

"Commander, we should withdraw immediately!" the Type 10 commander yells on the radio a bit too loudly, causing Miho to cringe a little.

"Negative, hold position. I'll deal with it."

"What?!" everyone inside the tank gasps, looking at her with wide eyes.

"I know you have magic, but this is insane!" Saori yells first. "How will you stop a weapon like that?!"

Miho says nothing and swiftly exits from her cupola, activating her powers at the same time. Yukari tries to grab her, but misses by a narrow margin. Miho jumps in front of the tank and rotates counterclockwise, swinging her hand left at the same time. A huge wall of red semi-transparrent energy erupts from the ground, separating her and the Gears from the tanks.

"Miss Nishizumi, what are you doing?!" Yukari yells, having exited the tank and standing in front of the red wall. Miho doesn't respond and eyes the enemy in front of her, her right hand getting covered in red energy. "Please Miss Nishizumi, come back!" she yells, hitting the wall with her hands. Everyone at the side of the tanks looks on Miho, as she punches the ground with her right hand and red energy starts trailing to the enemy soldiers through the ground. Reaching them, the ground beneath them explodes with enough force to throw them in the air and cause them to faint.

"Now that the annoyances are out of the way, time for the main event," she murmurs to herself, looking at the clear sky. Though the sky seems fine, she can already see the tungsten rod falling towards them at several times the speed of sound. Inhaling and exhaling deeply, Miho's right hand starts glowing red and red energy starts swirling around it. What happens next, makes everyone to look at Miho with their jaws hanging open. As the tungsten rod reaches a distance of 2 meters away from Miho, she whispers one word. "Overclock," and everything around her slow to a standstill, except for the rod that seems to approach her with the speed of a walking person. She still can move normally, so she raises her right hand backwards over her right shoulder and making a fist, she punches the rod at its pointy nose with a grunt. The slow motion effect instantly vanishes, time returning to normal for her. A huge shockwave occurs as the air around the contact point gets displaced outwards, hitting the wall of energy and cracking it, though it thankfully doesn't shatter. Miho puts every ounce of her strength to her right hand and legs, trying not to get blasted backwards by the immense kinetic force the rod has. The ground under her feet cracks and dirt gets blasted everywhere. Neutralizing the rest of its kinetic force, Miho finally gets blasted backwards at extreme speeds, crashing through the energy wall and shattering it. She barely misses Yukari as she flies past her and hits the ground, rolling for about 50 meters, before grinding to a stop. The tungsten rod, now horribly dented and mangled, falls to the ground with a loud thud, sinking on it due to its weight. Everyone looks in shock and awe at what has happened in front of them. The whole scene happened in less than a second and everyone is still processing what they have seen.

Snapping out of her shock first, Yukari runs towards Miho, who is lifting herself to sit on the ground, panting heavily. "Miss Nishizumi, are you all right?" she shouts, kneeling besides her and checking her body for any serious wounds. Other than small scrapes and a tattered uniform, she is relatively unharmed.

"I'm fine Yukari, don't worry," she says, though her tone sounds like she is a bit annoyed. After catching her breath, she stands up with Yukari's help and heads towards the entrance of the lab. By now, all of her friends have gathered around her to see how she is.

"That was nuts!" the M1A1 driver comments, as he eyes the Ooarai team.

"You can say that again. Imagine what she'll be able to to do if she gets angry or go all out," the T-90U commander says, shivering at the thought of how much chaos and destruction Miho could create. Meanwhile, the Type 10 has positioned itself in front of the metal doors of the lab, putting its back on them.

"That was insane! Everything happened so fast! One moment you were just gazing in the sky and the next you were lying on the ground and a huge metal rod was falling to the ground!" Saori says in amazement, using her hands to show what she saw.

"It was...breathtaking to say the least," Hana says in a graceful manner, though her heart still beats fast thanks to the adrenaline that flowed through her system.

"Awesome," Mako says, raising a thumbs up to Miho. This causes the girls to giggle a bit.

"Sorry to interrupt your chat, but the lab door won't open. Seems like the shockwave dented it pretty badly." the T-90U commander informs the girls, having gone and checked the door's controls.

"I'll open it. In the meantime, stay here and guard the entrance. You and the driver can use our tank for now," she says to the T-90U commander, before turning to face her friends. "Grab your weapons, we are going after Mannheim," she says and everyone nods with determination.

As the girls grab their weapons, Miho nears the metal doors and creates a black kunai knife at her right hand, which has a red energy ring around it. Throwing it at the doors, it gets stuck at the middle of them and a few seconds later it explodes, forcing the metal doors apart, the gap created being big enough for a tank to pass easily.

"I feel like we will be out of business soon," the Type 10's commander murmurs, having witnessed how easily Miho forced the doors to open.

As she sees the Anglerfish team entering the entrance to the lab, she gazes to the city of Tokyo, where multiple explosions are present. _At least the assault is going well,_ she thinks, seeing the explosions are progressing on the other side of the town, meaning they are winning.

* * *

 **1 minute till Odin's payload hit its target**

"How much will we have to wait?" Momo grumbles in annoyance. For the past day the Student Council, along with the other Ooarai teams, have been waiting for something that would tell them the lab would be under attack, in order to enact their escape plan, but so far nothing has happened.

"Momo-chan, you have to be patient," Yuzu smiles to Momo.

"Don't call me that!" she half-yells, but since they are inside an air duct, her voice gets amplified and sounds like she actually yelled.

"Keep your voice down, we don't want to be discovered," Anzu says with a lazy tone, waving a chip of dried sweet potato with her left hand. "Just be patient as-" she stops talking mid-sentence as she hears footsteps echoing throughout the hallway the air duct is connected to. Suddenly, the girls hear a loud crashing noise from above them and everything shakes, as the tungsten rod collides with Miho's hand, prompting all Ooarai teams that this is the signal to commence their escape.

"What was that?!" Momo yells in fear and surprise.

"The attack on the lab must have started," Yuzu says quickly, as the shaking stops.

"This is it, are you ready?" Anzu asks calmly Momo and Yuzu, eating the last dried sweet potato chip from her bag of chips. Both Momo and Yuzu nod and open slowly and carefully the cover of the air duct they are hiding in. Exiting as fast as they can, they spot a two-man patrol on their right, who are currently distracted by all the shaking that has occurred and are looking at the ceiling of the hallway. Both Momo and Yuzu approach one soldier each and put them in a headlock, suffocating them till they fall unconscious. Leaving the bodies to fall to the ground with a thud, they take their weapons and any ammunition they might have on them, before turning around and looking at Anzu, who stands in front of them.

"Good job. Let's hurry to the elevator and meet the others. We might also find one of the teams along the way," she informs both of them.

"Yes!" both Momo and Yuzu nod in agreement, before leading the way towards the elevator, where they are to meet the rest of the Ooarai teams.

* * *

 **Mallard team's containment cell**

After the shaking stops, all three members of the Morals Committee stand up, since they had been thrown to the ground by it.

"Okay, this must be the signal. Pazomi, do you have the ID card?" Sodoko asks, as both Pazomi and Goyomo stand in front of her at attention.

"Yes!" she curtly says, before handing Sodoko the ID card.

"Great. Listen well, the plan is to meet the others at the lab's elevator and escape from this facility. If we meet enemies, we either try to bypass them or knock them down. I think we all agree we shouldn't kill them, but...if it comes to the worst possible scenario, we might be forced to do it," she says the last part with an unsure and soft voice and the two girls in front of her gulp audibly, before nodding.

"Anyway, time to move out, so stay sharp!" she tells them and then proceed to the sealed door. Next to its frame is bolted an electronic lock with a slit to swipe through ID cards. Swiping the card, a small beep is heard, before the door opens, getting retracted to the side. Peeking carefully out of it, Sodoko scans the hallway for any movement and seeing no one, she motions to the other two to follow her.

"Remember that no matter what, we should not split up," Sodoko says and both Pazomi and Goyomo nod curtly. Traversing the hallway, they notice that there aren't any enemies patrolling, which confuses Sodoko greatly.

 _Where is the enemy,_ she thinks, as she continues navigating through the hallway _. Something's not right._ Rounding a corner, she bumps into someone, causing her to fall to the ground on her butt.

"Hey, watch where you are going!" she shouts angrily, before looking forward and losing all the color from her face. In front of her stands one of the Gears, his weapon already aiming at her head. Pazomi and Gomoyo just stand behind Sodoko, trembling like leaves, frozen in fear.

Before the Gear can open fire, a shot rings out and the Gear collapses on the floor on his back. Sodoko immediately stands up and looks for the origin of the shot, while Pazomi and Gomoyo dart behind her back to hide.

"Are you all okay?" a voice calls out to them as three figures approach them quickly.

"Miss Momo!" Sodoko says relieved, watching Yuzu and Anzu approaching them. Momo lowers the assault rifle she holds, gunpowder smoke escaping its barrel. "Why are you here? I thought we were all supposed to meet at the lab's elevator," Sodoko sighs and asks calmly, now that her life is safe. She still feels a little unnerved that Momo had to shoot and kill a human, but she won't question her actions when they have saved her.

"It seems the hallways intersect with each other at some points, so it seems the teams might stumble on each other," Anzu informs them, picking the now dead Gear's submachine gun and any ammunition he might have. "Enough chattering, let's go on the elevator and see if anyone else has made it there."

Taking the lead, the Turtle team continues towards the elevator, followed closely by the Mallard team.

* * *

 **Hippo team's containment cell**

As everything stops shaking, the members of the Hippo team slowly rise to their feet, having been thrown to the ground by all the shaking.

"Did they decide to bombard the lab with Schwerer Gustav?" Erwin groans, rubbing the back of her head slightly. Standing up, she picks her peaked hat from the ground and dusts it, before putting it on her head.

"I don't think the Romans had any siege equipment of such tremendous force," Caesar comments, dusting herself a bit.

"Whatever the case, I think that is the signal the lab is being attacked," Oryou informs the others.

"Saemonza, get your bow; we might need to defend ourselves," Erwin orders. Saemonza nods and goes to a certain point of the floor and picks it up, revealing a hollow space underneath it. From inside it, she retrieves a composite bow and some arrows. For the past year, during their visits, the Turtle team would bring the Hippo team small parts of the bow and after gathering all of them, Saemonza had pieced them together to create it. The same was for the arrows.

"You think we will meet Guderian again?" Saemonza asks, equipping her bow and passing the arrows to Oryou to hold.

"I hope. If what the president said was true, then she, along with the rest of the Anglerfish team, is participating in this attack," Erwin says as she approaches the door. Sliding the ID card, the door beeps once and it opens. Erwin peeks her head out and after seeing no enemies, she beckons the others to come. "Everything's clear, let's get going."

Walking through the hallways, the girls notice that there are no Gears patrolling them.

"You think they ordered them to go and protect the lab's entrance?" Erwin suggests, as they walk carefully, making sure not to make any noise.

"That would mean the forces that are besieging the lab are numerous," Caesar says in a low voice.

"Or the forces that have been sent are extremely good at their job," Saemonza comments, keeping an arrow in the bow's string, ready to pull and release it, if the need arises.

"Guts!" they hear a familiar voice saying and in an intersection where the hallway they are in meets with another, they see on of the Gears stumbling backwards and Akebi performing a right hook at him. The Gear ducks and avoids the hook, shooting upwards like a spring and performing an uppercut on her. Akebi crosses her arms and blocks it, but gets pushed back slightly, her arms aching from the punch.

Saemonza pulls back the arrow and aims for the Gear's right leg and releases it, which lodges itself on his thigh. The Gear merely stumbles and looks at Saemonza's way, but this gives Akebi an opening. She performs a side-kick on him and he crashes to the ground to his left. As he tries to get up, Akebi kicks him in the head with just enough force to knock him out. Another Gear stumbles back into view for the Hippo team to see, like he was kicked in the gut, before Taeko spears him on the ground and punches him on the face. The man returns the favor by punching Taeko on the face too, forcing her to fall backwards. Another arrow soars through the air and strikes the Gear on his neck, lodging itself on his spine and killing him instantly. Saemonza finally lowers her bow, but not before she puts another arrow in its string. Akebi finally notices the Hippo team and waves at them, though her breath is heavy.

"Hey girls," she says to Erwin and the others, panting heavily. By now, the rest of the volleyball team has come to check up on her and Taeko, who sits on the ground clutching on her face.

"Ah, Hippo team!" Noriko exclaims happily, running in front of Erwin. "You are alright!"

"Same to you," Erwin says with her trademarked smile. "Though I have a question. The way to the elevator is the other way, so why are you coming here?"

"Well, we might have been lost," Noriko smiles awkwardly.

"Captain, Akebi and Taeko are fine!" Shinobu says to her, having checked Akebi and Taeko for any injuries. "Though Taeko seems to be a bit dizzy," she notes, as Taeko tries to stand up and nearly falls back down.

"I'm fine don't worry," Taeko assures everyone as she shakes her head lightly.

"It is better if we keep moving, we don't know if there are more enemies," Caesar suggests and everyone nods in agreement.

* * *

 **Rabbit team's containment cell**

"Girls, we need to stay calm!" Azusa shouts to the rest of her team, that look all around the room, hugging each other like scared rats, with panic and fear written all over their faces. The only exception is Saki, who has a thousand-yard stare at one of the walls...or is looking at a butterfly.

"But what was this shaking?! I don't want to die!" Karina cries as she hugs Yuuki a bit too tight, Yuuki feeling like she will pass out from asphyxiation soon.

"Maybe this is the signal Miss Yuzu mentioned?" Ayumi asks with a slightly trembling voice.

"It could be," Aya says, picking her glasses that had fallen from all the shaking. "I wish i had my phone, maybe I could check on the Internet about it," she says in a dissapointed tone.

"They'd probably ask you to take your shirt off first," Ayumi says quietly and everyone shares a small laugh.

"I think we should get going. The more quickly we go to the elevator, the more quickly we will find the others," Azusa says and everyone seems to relax a little, their faces not showing panic anymore, though they still seem to be tensed. Azusa walks to the door and swipes the ID card. After the door opens, she comes face to face with a Gear. Before she can do anything, the Gear uses his weapon to push Azusa back, causing her to trip on her feet and fall to the ground on her butt.

Acting on impulse, Karina charges at the man, headbutting him on his abdomen. The man falls on the ground and while he is down, the rest of the girls find this an opportunity to escape. Aya helps Azusa on her feet, Ayumi grabs Saki by the hand, who is only now registering what is going on and Yuuki drags Karina from her arm, since she is clutching her head from the intense pain she is feeling and they all exit from the cell, running towards where the elevator is.

"Do anyone knows where we are going?!" Aya shouts, looking behind her over her shoulder and seeing the Gear rising to his feet, his weapon still on his hands.

"I know! At the next intersection, we have to turn right!" Azusa responds back. A loud bang is heard and a bullet passes next to Yuuki's left leg, causing all the girls to scream.

"He is shooting us!" Ayumi yells in fear, causing panic to grip the girls. Reaching the intersection, all the girls round the corner, but as Karina rounds it, another bullet is fired and it grazes her right leg slightly.

"Aaaaaa!" she cries as she falls to the ground. "It hurts!" she says through greeted teeth, grabbing her leg just above from where the bullet grazed her.

"Ayumi, Yuuki, carry her, we cannot stop now!" Azusa orders and Ayumi and Yuuki immediately grab one arm each and help support Yuuki with their shoulders. As they reach the middle of the hallway, another Gear makes his appearance in front of them and raising his weapon, he shouts in his heavily synthesized voice. "Stop, or I will open fire!"

The girls stop dead on their tracks, with Azusa standing in front of all her friends, who seem to be cowering behind her and trembling once again, except for Saki, who just stares at the barrel of the gun with slightly widen eyes.

"You are to return to your cell, or lethal force will be used," the Gear that was chasing them, says, raising his own weapon at the girls.

"Leave them alone!" a voice yells and a wrench hits the Gear that was chasing the girls, on the side of his head, the force of the blow cracking the helmet and giving the man a serious concussion. Seeing his ally crumbling to the ground, the remaining Gear aims at the one that wields the wrench, but as he is about to pull the trigger, another girl performs an axe kick on his head, knocking him out instantly.

"I knew we could perform these moves from the video games!" Momoga shouts excitedly, pumping a fist in the air.

"Are you alright?" Hoshino asks, as Suzuki puts the wrench she is holding over her left shoulder.

"We are fine, but Karina was shot in the leg," Ayumi tells them quickly.

"Let me she it," Momoga says quickly, crouching in front of Karina and checking her wound. "It doesn't seem to be deep and it's not bleeding, but it will need medical attention." Standing up, Momoga picks up Karina and puts her over her right shoulder. "We really need to be going."

"Hey, Momoga, where are the rest of the Anteater team?" Hoshino asks, as her team approaches Momoga and the Rabbit team.

"They are already at the elevator. I just came back because I heard gunfire," she replies curtly, before making her way to the elevator with Karina on her shoulder, the rest of the girls following her closely. After a minute or two, they finally arrive in front of the elevator door, where the rest of the Ooarai teams are.

"Good, you finally arrived," Anzu says, before noticing Momoga is carrying Karina. "What happened to her?"

"She was shot in the leg, but thankfully the bullet just grazed her," Momoga answers as she carefully sets Karina down. The rest of the Rabbit team gathers around Karina, to see how she holds out and how her wound is.

"She might need medical attention then," Momo says.

"Umm...president...we might have a problem," Yuzu says slowly.

"What is it Yuzu?" Anzu asks quickly.

"The elevator has just passed our level," she informs Anzu.

"What?" Anzu glances just above the elevator's door and sees the indicator stopping at six. "Wait a minute, since when does the lab has six levels? I thought it only had five,"she mutters to herself.

"President, we have enemies!" Momo shouts in alarm, as she spots Gears approaching. Raising her weapon, she starts firing at them, hitting one square in the chest and forcing the other one to run for cover in one of the intersections the hallways meet. The girls from the Rabbit team start screaming, as they get startled by the gunfire.

"Miss Momo, you actually hit a target," Erwin says in a surprised tone. The other teams look surprised as well, except for Rabbit and Mallard, who are too scared to notice or care about it.

"Why are you acting surprised? My aiming is-" she starts saying, but gets interrupted by Anzu.

"Listen up! Rabbit, Mallard and Anteater, you take the elevator first and go to the Garage Depot and wait for us there," Anzu commands as she joins Momo along with Yuzu. As the doors of the elevator open, the girls from the mentioned teams enter inside and the elevator doors close.

"Next will be the Hippo, Duck and Leopon teams. We will come last," Anzu says between her gunfire.

"More Gears!" Yuzu says, noticing more soldiers coming towards them. Returning, the elevator doors open and in go the Duck and Leopon teams.

"Saemonza, are you sure about this?" Erwin whispers to her quickly.

"Yes. They need as much help as possible," Saemonza replies quietly.

"You know what that entails, don't you?" Erwin asks with a serious look and Saemonza nods. "Then good luck and be careful." Erwin gives a quick salute and enters the elevator with the rest of the Hippo team.

"How many Gears are in this level?!" Momo asks incredulously as another three Gears make their appearance. "Everyone, hit the ground!" she yells, as bullets start flying above their heads. As one of the Gears peeks out of the intersection's corners to fire on the girls, an arrow pierces his helmet and head, killing him instantly. "Saemonza, what are you doing here?" Momo shouts at Saemonza, who shoots another arrow and hits yet another Gear.

"I thought you could use some help," she says in a genuine tone. After two minutes and dealing with the rest of the Gears, they hear the elevator doors open and so they enter inside.

"You could have been seriously injured or died," Momo reprimands Saemonza for choosing to stay to help out the Student Council.

"Momo-chan, we are all fine thanks to her so-" Yuzu starts saying when she spots something at the end of this long corridor that makes her face pale considerably and whisper one word. "Executioner."

Both Anzu and Momo snap their gazes at the end of the hallway and surely enough, a man with a helmet that has six red lights slowly approaches them.

"We need to go now," Anzu says in alarm and presses the button for the elevator to go to the Garage Depot and as the doors close, the Executioner teleports in front of them and literally bends the doors outwards, his metallic gloves bending them horribly out of shape. Saemonza just stares at the Executioner with a shocked expression, both of her eyes being wide open.

Thinking fast, Anzu retrieves a strange black sphere from one of her uniform's pockets and crushes it on her hand, which starts glowing a white-greenish color. Punching the Executioner, a spike of the same color exits through his back, before the Executioner collapses on the ground.

"Now, press the button again!" Anzu says quickly and the elevator starts going up to the Garage Depot. As the glowing from her hand fades, she can feel her body losing some of its strength, but she maintains her composure, even if it is to make sure the others don't get worried.

"What...was that?" Saemonza asks slowly, still feeling shocked from what she witnessed.

"We will explain everything once we are safe," Anzu says quickly. Reaching the Garage Depot, they get out of the elevator and look around for the rest of the teams.

"Miss Momo, Miss Yuzu, president, over here!" Erwin waves at them and the girls approach the members of the Hippo team. "The rest of the teams are already outside and have made contact with forces from a PMC named Blackout," she informs Anzu and the rest while they all walk to the lab's entrance. "Though there is something that...might surprise you," Erwin finishes her sentence, saying the last part with a slight hesitation.

As they exit, Anzu notices the doors have been forced open somehow. She also notices the Anglerfish team's Panzer IV ausf H, which fills her with relief, but also with dread for some reason. _If Miho is here, than Mannheim will most likely confront her_ , she thinks, though what she sees next makes her to whistle. A huge and horribly bent tungsten rod sits on the ground, which has cracked and sank a bit. "What is this?" she hears Yuzu ask in amazement.

"This is a tungsten rod designed to be dropped from low orbit, like an artificial meteor of some sorts," the Type 10's commander informs them. "Normally it can do tremendous amounts of damage." In the background, a loud crashing noise is heard as multiple tungsten rods start falling all over the city of Tokyo. "Like this." Everyone looks with stunned looks at the city...or what remains of it, getting annihilated by the rods.

"Then, how this one didn't destroy the whole lab?" Momo asks slowly, still eyeing the destruction the tungsten rods have caused.

"One of your friends stopped it," the commander says like it is an every day occurrence and everyone looks back at her with confused expressions.

Anzu stares at the rod that lies in front of them. "Miho," she blurts out and everyone falls silent, looking at her.

"What?!" Everyone, except for the Turtle team and Saki, shout in disbelief and the girls start speaking with each other, their voices getting mixed into a loud buzzing.

"Everyone, shut up!" Momo roars and everyone calms down somewhat. "The president will explain everything, so remain silent."

 _This is going to take a lot of time_ , Anzu sighs mentally, as she begins to explain to the rest of the girls about Ether, Miho and anything else that relates with them.

* * *

 **A/N: Yay, another chapter finished! The Battle between Mannheim and Miho draws closer and the girls are finally free, but why would Blackout bombard the whole city of Tokyo with Odin? Or was it something else? And I'll be running an OC contest in a couple of chapters.** **A** **nyway, a** **s always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and** **there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**


	25. Chapter 25: The Deal

**The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 25: The Deal**

* * *

Entering the lab's entrance, the girls find themselves inside the Garage Depot, which is completely empty for some reason. Scanning the area, the only thing they can see are some fuel tanks, that are used for refueling vehicles and a lot of wooden boxes stacked in random places. The floor of the Garage Depot is marked with yellow lines that have the shape of the letter "U", probably acting as markers and indicating to the vehicles where to park.

"This is weird. You'd expect the Garage Depot to be full of personnel, like engineers or crew members," Saori says to the others, wondering why the enemy has left the space unoccupied.

"And since this is the only way to the underground levels of the lab, you'd expect this area to be heavily fortified and defended," Mako adds, lowering her weapon slowly.

"Maybe the remaining personnel evacuated somehow without us noticing, or by the time we arrived, most of the important things like data or high-tech machines, had been destroyed, so only the ones able to fight remained," Yukari suggests, turning to face Miho. "What're your thoughts in this, Miss Nishizumi?"

Placing a hand on her chin, Miho starts looking around the room with a thoughtful expression. "It could be what you suggested Yukari, but it could also be a trap. The only way to access the lower levels is by that single elevator, which means they could have easily barricaded themselves in each floor and have created killzones in the corridors that connect with the elevator," Miho counters, turning to gaze at Yukari. Of note, Miho had decided to deactivate her powers for now, not because she was afraid she wouldn't have enough energy to face Mannheim, but because she was conscious of her behavior changing. When she used her powers, she became more aggressive and harsher towards everything and everyone, like they were annoying her and despite being conscious of the behavioral changes, she felt they were natural, which was very unnerving for her.

"Our only option is to take the elevator and pray we do not find ourselves in one of these supposed killzones then," Hana says to the rest of the team and Miho nods in agreement.

"We can always count on Miss Nishizumi to use her powers and blast the bad guys away!" Yukari exclaims cheerfully as the girls go towards the elevator.

"Can bullets even harm you?" Saori asks Miho in genuine curiosity.

"I'd rather not find out," Miho answers back with an awkward smile.

Entering the elevator, the girls look at a panel on their left that has 6 buttons, one for each level the underground lab has.

"In which one should we go?" Hana asks first.

"I say the 3rd level!" Yukari says.

"Why that level?" Miho asks curiously.

"Just a hunch."

"Umm...that's not a good enough reason Yukari," Miho says slowly and Yukari deflates like a balloon with each word.

"Usually in video games, the bosses are always on the lowest level, when it comes to underground structures, so Mannheim might be...on the lowest level...what?" Saori reasons, but says the last part slowly, since everyone looks at her with a surprised look.

"Saori...since when do you know about...video games?" Miho asks slowly after finding her voice.

"Well...I had read in a magazine that boys love video games, so I thought if I played a couple and learned about them, I could increase my chances of finding a cute boy," Saori explains, her cheeks being light red from the embarrassment she feels. Saori tries to ask Miho something to redirect the attention the girls give her, but Mako is already making her move.

"And, lo and behold, a miracle has happened and Saori found a handsome boyfriend," Mako says in a monotone, almost bored voice deliberately, going as far as to raise both of her hands above her head.

"Hey!" Saori yells and starts pinching and pulling Mako's cheeks. Her entire face has turn scarlet and the girls can't stop from giggling at Mako's remark.

Wiping the tears that have formed in her eyes, Miho turns to face the panel and presses the button for the 6th level. The button vanishes in a tiny explosion of green smoke and the elevator starts moving downwards.

"Eh?" Miho says, seeing the button vanishing.

"Is everything alright Miss Nishizumi?" Yukari asks and Hana too turns to face her friend and commander. Saori just keeps pulling Mako's cheeks while looking at their direction.

"The button. As soon as I pressed it...it vanished," she says slowly and points at where the button used to be. All the girls look at where Miho is pointing and as she said, the button is nowhere to be seen.

"Could it have been set by Mannheim then?" Hana asks.

"Probably. He did demonstrate he has powers, though it could have been another user," Miho says with a thoughtful expression.

"That reminds me!" Saori speak ups suddenly and everyone turns to look at her. "How did you recognize Mannheim? We only learned about him through what the president gave us and there wasn't a mention of how he looked or how his voice sounded." Everyone turns to face Miho and she can feel sweat starting to form on her brow.

"Indeed. He also mentioned a girl named Sakura. He said she was paired with you during the experiments," Hana adds, eyeing Miho with a worried expression. "And you also knew the girl."

Feeling pressured from the intense stares her friends give her, Miho gulps audibly, before spending the next minute explaining about the dream she had, how she recognized Mannheim and why she asked him about Sakura. Finishing her explanation, everyone remains silent for the rest of the descent.

Reaching the 6th level, the doors of the elevator open and the girls find themselves in a huge open space that is as big and tall as a soccer stadium. Exiting the elevator, its doors close and it starts moving to the upper levels.

"Wow, this place is huge!" Saori says in amazement, looking all around her. "How is it even possible for this room to exist."

"From an engineering standpoint, this should have had collapsed from the weight it must support," Mako says, looking at the flat ceiling. "If it was dome-shaped, maybe it could stand."

"I see you have come," a voice says, snapping the girls back to reality. In the middle of the room stands Mannheim, looking at them with a slight smirk. The girls immediately take aim at him with their weapons. The weapons start glowing with a soft green color and immediately vanish from their hands and the girls gasp.

"Hey, do you know how much these cost?!" Saori shouts at him angrily, raising a shaking fist at him.

"That's what you are worried about?" Mako raises an eyebrow at Saori.

"Please, be at ease. I merely moved them away so that we can speak. I can see that your commander has some questions for me." Despite the distance that separates them, Mannheim's voice can be heard loud and clear across the room, like he is standing a few meters away from them.

"Girls, I want you to stay here," Miho says and everyone instantly turns to look at her.

"What?! Why?!" Saori asks urgently, being shocked by Miho's words.

"What if something happens Miss Nishizumi?!" Yukari shouts and grabs Miho's shoulders. "What if you get injured?! We won't be able to help you! Not only that, but he has powers like yours, what if he attacks you?!"

"You said it yourself Yukari, he has powers like me. If he attacks me and you are there, there is a high chance that you will be caught in the crossfire and get injured...or worse," Miho says softly, avoiding eye contact with Yukari. Placing her hands on Yukari's, she gently removes them from her shoulders and starts walking towards Mannheim.

"But-" Yukari starts saying, but feels a hand on her left shoulder. Looking back, she sees Hana shaking her head, indicating to her that no words will change her mind.

"We understand. Please be careful," Hana says to Miho.

"I miss our school days. Everything was so much simpler and we didn't have to do questionable things or put our lives on the line," Saori sighs, looking at the fleeting figure of Miho, who is nearing Mannheim.

"Unfortunately, this is the world we live in. We have to do things we don't like," Hana says.

Stopping a few meters away from Mannheim, both him and Miho stay silent for a few moments.

"Welcome Subject 23. I'm sure you have a lot of questions, and I will answer them all, but let me warn you first," Mannheim says with a sinister smile. "The truth, might be too much to handle."

Miho says nothing at first and activates her power, just to make sure Mannheim won't try anything. "Sakura," Miho says in a calm, yet hostile, tone. "Is she alive?"

"Unfortunately, Subject 22 is deceased," Mannheim says with a neutral tone and Miho clenches her right fist as hard as she can, trying to resist the urge to attack Mannheim here and now.

"Then, who where the women that attacked me and her?" Miho asks with a harsh tone.

"Our world exists along an infinite amount of worlds inside a reality bubble. Our reality exists along other realities-"

"That are maintained by Ether, I know that stuff. What I want to know is who were these women," Miho interrupts Mannheim.

"It seems Ether alters your behavioral pattern, interesting," Mannheim mutters to himself, looking intently at Miho. "But it matters not now. Where was I, ah yes. The realities exist in a place where time and space do not apply. In that place exist 12 beings that can fully manipulate the Ether. They are the ones that keep it in check and make sure it doesn't invade in any of the realities. Those 2 women, where two of these 12 beings."

"And you sent us at this place, just to force me to use my powers." Miho's voice is shaking with anger, but she doesn't make any move for now. The more information she has, the better understanding of Mannheim's motives she will have.

"Yes. I will not apologize for my actions and what they caused. I have my own goals and I'll stop at nothing to complete them. The 12 will pay for what they have done," Mannheim says with a dark tone and Miho takes a mental note of it.

"Why did they attack us Mannheim? I don't think a 6 year-old girl could do much to them."

"You wielded Ether. They don't trust humans with their power and will actively hunt them down. Interestingly, they will not kill those who are born with the ability to use Ether," Mannheim informs her.

"Then what's my role in all of this? You seem to have gone in a great extent to bring me here. You kidnapped my friends, attacked Blackout to find me and even lured me in this lab," Miho says.

"You are the only person to be able to wield Serum Black. You probably have the potential to defeat the 12 and I'll use you to exact my revenge against them," Mannheim says bluntly to her with a serious expression.

"Why? What these 12 have done to you? Couldn't you accomplish this with the Institute?" Miho asks him, in a bid she will learn Mannheim's plans.

"Why I want revenge is of no concern to you. And I couldn't care less about the Institute. These terrorists were just another convenient tool for me to use."

"Terrorists?" Miho asks in a surprised tone, raising an eyebrow at him. "Didn't you create the Institute, along with some generals from the JSDF?"

"The Institute is an international terrorist organization bent on world domination. I just used them to have access to this lab. The generals cooperated with them, because they promised them to be the governors of Japan, can you believe this?" Mannheim laughs. "I took care of them though, along with any guy from the Institute. Japan is clean from them for now."

"Is that why you did all these horrible experiments? Just so you could exact revenge?!" Miho says quietly, but her voice echoes throughout the room.

"These monsters killed my family. These monsters caused the earthquakes which plunged everything into chaos! These monsters destroyed the city of Tokyo, killing everyone that was in the city at the time!" Mannheim bursts in a fit of anger, before quickly composing himself. Miho and even the girls look at him with shocked expressions and open mouths.

"What do you mean, they caused it?"

"Some of them interfered with our world, because they were bored. They caused the earthquakes for their own amusement, to see how the humans would react. Then two of them decided to battle because of this. They clashed their weapons over the city of Tokyo and the energy that was released, leveled the whole city," Mannheim says with a dark expression.

Sighing in response, Miho takes a deep breath to calm and recompose herself. "I will not become another tool in your path to exact revenge Mannheim. Your path will only cause more death and destruction." Miho's body starts getting covered by her aura. "I will stop you here and now."

 _All according to plan._ "Then let us make a deal. If I remember correctly, you lead a branch of Blackout named Ether Force." Miho looks at him suspiciously, but says nothing, so Mannheim continues. "If you win our fight, I'll work at your branch as a researcher. Since I created the Serums, I can create more with the proper machines and materials, as well as help the users develop their powers more."

"And if you win?"

"You will come and work under me," Mannheim says with a huge grin.

Miho doesn't answer immediately, weighing the consequences of her response. Should she accept and win, she will have a powerful "ally" at her disposal, the creator of the Serums himself, but should she lose, she will have to become Mannheim's tool and help him with his plans. Should she decline and win, she won't be sure Mannheim will cooperate with her and he will probably escape. If she loses, Mannheim will either capture her, or kill her to make sure she won't interfere with his plans.

It doesn't take long to make a decision. "Fine, I accept your deal," Miho says, determined to stop him once and for all.

Mannheim's body starts to get covered in a bright green aura. Moving his left hand outwards, a dome is created where Miho's friends stand, trapping them inside it. "Just to make sure they won't get caught in our fight. Now, let us begin."

And with that phrase, both of their auras clash with each other, shaking the whole room. After a second, the auras retract back to them. Now, the real battle begins.

Summoning two energy daggers at her hands, Miho shoots forward at Mannheim, aiming the daggers at his heart and head. Mannheim sidesteps on his right and lightly taps Miho at her left side. Miho gets hurled through the air and hits the wall of the room, throwing chunks of concrete and dirt everywhere. A cloud of dust obscures the hole that was created from Miho's impact. A fraction of a second later, Mannheim gets hit by a ruby red ray square in the chest, getting propelled to the opposite wall and breaking it. As the dust finally falls to the ground, Mannheim sees Miho standing in front of the broken wall, her hand holding three black kunai knives with a red circle around them. Miho throws the kunai knives and Mannheim creates a barrier in front of him to block them.

Hitting the barrier, the kunai knives explode at the same time, producing three domes of red energy that cover Mannheim's barrier completely.

 _Did I get him?_ Miho thinks, as she sees the domes vanishing. To her surprise, the barrier still holds, although it has a few cracks.

"That was a good attack, though it isn't enough to even scratch me," Mannheim mocks. "Now it's my turn." Vanishing from where he stands, Mannheim reappears behind Miho and punches her in her back.

Not expecting him to appear behind her, Miho fails to defend herself and gets hurled through the air again, though this time she is prepared and lands on the wall with her feet. Covering them with Ether, she launches herself to Mannheim, the wall under her feet breaking and forming cracks at a 10-meter radius. While in mid-flight, she creates 2 energy spears and throws them at Mannheim.

Mannheim deflects the first spear and catches the second, crushing it with his hand like it is made out of paper. Miho creates an energy dagger and when she reaches Mannheim, tries to stab him again. Mannheim creates an energy sword and blocks Miho's strike, stopping her. Using the momentum she already has, Miho forces herself up in the air and making a frontflip, she covers her right leg with her aura and performs an axe-kick. Mannheim steps backwards and barely avoids the strike, Miho's leg missing Mannheim's nose by mere millimeters. Hitting the ground, the ground in a 20-meter radius visibly cracks and creates a shallow crater. Mannheim raises his sword to strike Miho, but stops when he sees her grinning at him. Turning around and slicing upwards diagonally from left to right, he manages to slash Miho's wolf, who had jumped in the air and was aiming for his neck. The wolf falls to the ground and explodes to harmless smoke, which quickly disappears.

"I had forgotten your canine friend. That was a nice attack, you almost had me," Mannheim praises Miho, who only frowns at him. Raising his sword, Mannheim charges at Miho, who defends with her dagger. As both combatants trade blows, alternating into attacking and defending, the girls watch the fight through the safety of Mannheim's dome.

"This...I can't even follow their movements!" Saori says in frustration, her eyes unable to follow the pace of the fight.

"It seems that Ether boosts the strength of their bodies at an extreme level," Mako comments as she sees Miho getting kneed by Mannheim with so much force that she is lifted a good two meters into the air.

"If we had powers like Miss Nishizumi, we could help her," Yukari says quietly, looking at Miho, who, recovering in mid-air, creates an energy spear and throws it at Mannheim, grazing his left arm slightly.

"Yukari, we have already talked about this. You know what Miho went through to acquire them. Do you think she would be happy if you had to make so many sacrifices just for the slim chance of getting stronger," Hana reprimands Yukari, more out of concern for her, than anything else.

In the meantime, Mannheim has managed to hit Miho with a well-placed punch, stunning her for a brief second. Mannheim punches Miho again and she stumbles backwards. Getting kneed to the gut, Miho feels the air forcefully leaving her lungs and she falls to her knees, gasping for air and coughing.

"I expected more of you, if I am honest," Mannheim says in disappointment looking down at Miho. "I thought you had so much potential, yet you can't keep up with me even when I use only a portion of my power."

Rising slowly and standing on shaky legs, Miho looks Mannheim straight in the eyes. "Just because you are more powerful, doesn't mean you should underestimate your opponent," Miho says, pointing at the ground between his legs.

Looking at where Miho points, Mannheim finds a black kunai knife lodged in the ground, crackling with electricity. His eyes widen in surprise when he recognizes the item.

"It's over Mannheim," Miho declares quietly, as the kunai knife disintegrates and the ground below him starts glowing. "I won."

A pillar the size of Mannheim shoots upwards from the ground in a brilliant ruby red color and engulfs him. In fact, the beam of energy is so powerful that it digs through the ceiling with ease and stops a few meters short of penetrating the hill's surface.

Miho sighs in relief, glad the fight is over; though her victory is short-lived.

"You didn't expect to defeat me so easily now, did you?" Mannheim's voice echoes in the room and Miho snaps her gaze in the now diminishing pillar of energy, that becomes smaller and smaller. After it vanishes, Mannheim is still where he last stood, the only indication of damage being his singed lab coat. "I have to say, I never imagined I'd have to use more than half of my power." Releasing all of his power, the air around Mannheim starts pulsing outwards, threatening to push Miho backwards. Her eyes widen in fear from the overwhelming concentration of Ether in the air and her body freezes, refusing to make any kinds of movement. "I'll acknowledge, you have potential, but you refuse to use it for some reason." Mannheim glances briefly at the girls inside the dome and develops a mischievous grin. "Or you just need a little bit of pushing."

"You leave my friends outside of this Mannheim!" Miho shouts at him and throws three energy daggers.

Mannheim easily dodges them and swings his sword horizontally, sending a thin layer of Ether energy at Miho.

Miho somersaults over it and throws her right hand forward. Clenching her fingers to a fist, she retracts her hand backwards and just stands there, doing nothing. Mannheim looks at her with a perplexed look, before feeling three objects stabbing him in the back. Getting stunned, Miho capitalizes on this and creates an energy spear, throwing it in his chest. The spear pierces his ribcage and exits out of his back. Any normal person should have died instantly from a wound like this, but Mannheim stands and his next move just shocks Miho even more.

"Such attacks won't work to me," he grins as he grabs Miho's spear and starts to absorb the energy. "I am not a human being anymore."

"H-How? T-This should be impossible," Miho stutters, unable to tear her eyes from the hole Mannheim has in his chest, which is slowly closing. After a few seconds, the hole has completely disappeared and Mannheim takes a single step forward. Miho barely registers his form, as she feels a burning sensation on her left side.

"Aaaaaaaargh!" she screams in pain as Mannheim's blade slashes through her left side. Falling to her knees, she grabs her wound with her right hand, keeping her mouth closed, as to not scream any further.

"I am like the 12. I use pure Ether instead of refining it first, like your brain does. Which means I can absorb and use the refined one too. You can use raw Ether too, though your brain would have to refine it first." Standing in front of Miho, he crouches to her level, looking her directly in the eyes. "The deal was in my favor, I won't deny it. Though if you somehow managed to win, I would have honor it."

Standing up once again, he grabs Miho from her neck and lifts her in the air. "I think it is time to finish this." Two semi-transparrent green wings emerge from Mannheim's back and start flapping. Mannheim then lifts himself in the air and flies through the hole the energy pillar had created at extreme speeds, still holding Miho from her neck.

"You will...not...win Mannheim." Miho croaks, feeling Mannheim's grip tightening slowly. "I will...defeat you."

"I'd like to see you trying," Mannheim smirks as they both reach the hole's end. Using Miho's body as a makeshift shield, he digs through the dirt and exits from the hill, finding themselves 50 meters above the ground in an instant. Spinning in his place, he throws Miho even higher.

Miho's body hurts everywhere, her mind getting overwhelmed with pain signals that threaten to make her lose consciousness. She tries to move, but her body refuses to obey her.

"This is the end. You lose, Subject 23," Miho hears Mannheim declare and finds him thrusting his hand towards her abdomen, brimming with green energy. _I refuse to lose!_ she cries out in her mind. _I will save my friends!_

Using sheer willpower, she grabs Mannheim's hand and the moment it hits her, she deactivates her powers, allowing Mannheim's energy to enter her body, using the pure Ether as a temporary power boost. The consequences are grave though. Because she deactivated her powers, in order to be able to absorb Mannheim's energy, her body reverted to being as strong as an average girl, which means the punch she is about to receive will cause grave injuries. The air fills with the sound of internal organs getting crushed, as she vomits blood from her mouth. The pain is so unbearable, that she can only widen her eyes in response to it, the shock making her unable to scream.

Mannheim is so surprised by the stunt Miho pulled, that after he punches her, he just hovers in the air and looks at her falling body.

Despite the pain she feels, Miho tries to activate her powers before she hits the ground and dies for good. Though however much she tries, her powers refuse to activate and she doesn't know why. Unknown to her, thanks to the overwhelming amount of Ether she absorbed, her brain is literally trying to process it as fast as it can, leaving no capacity to manipulate the refined Ether. _Come on, activate!_ she screams in her clouded mind as she rapidly approaches the ground. Her heads starts pounding and mere moments before touching the grassy soil, her powers activate and she slams on it like a meteor, digging the earth for about 50 meters, before finally stopping. Thanks to her powers, she managed to avoid instantaneous death by free falling, but her wounds are still grave and her head has started to pound like she is hitting it to a wall. Sitting up on the ground, she vomits even more blood then before. Her head starts pounding harder and harder and her vision blurs considerably. She can make out the outlines of some figures and what seems like two tanks, but she isn't so sure. She hears several voices, though they feel so distant, she can't understand them well.

"Once again, you surpass all of my expectations," Mannheim says, landing a few meters away from Miho. "To actually use my own attack to give yourself a temporary boost...though it seems it didn't work out in the end."

" It's time," Miho whispers as her mind finally processes the last amount of pure Ether. For a couple of seconds nothing happens.

"That's weird, your signature is fluctuating," Mannheim mutters and then realization hits him. A little bit late though. The air starts flowing violently outwards and red crystals start appearing out of the ground, encasing Miho inside a makeshift crystal dome. Mannheim is barely able to stay in place and the figures that are a few meters behind him fall to the ground, unable to resist the winds. As the wind dies down, the crystal dome starts cracking and after a bit, it completely breaks, revealing Miho standing.

Mannheim stares with interest at her appearance, as he prepares himself to attack. Miho's hands are clad in black gauntlets and in her chest is a black breastplate. Behind her back float two crystal wings that are at least 2 meters long. When he looks at her eyes, Mannheim feels his whole body stiffening. Her eyes have slit, cat-like pupils and seem to look directly at his soul. Miho slowly raises her right arm and 20 energy spears form all around her. "Bind," she says in an authoritarian voice and chains shoot from the ground, immobilizing Mannheim. She then unleashes all her spears, which home in Mannheim like missiles.

"Two can play this game," Mannheim says and releases a burst of pure Ether, shattering both the chains and spears. "You can't-" Mannheim utters, before noticing a black gauntlet that has red energy swirling all around it, mere millimeters away from his face. In the time Mannheim took to free himself and destroy the spears, Miho seemingly teleportation in front of him and moved her right hand backwards to prepare for a punch.

Hitting Mannheim, a huge explosion occurs that sends him crashing at the side of her Panzer IV. In fact, the punch is so powerful that the Schürtzen plates get blasted to pieces by Mannheim's body, which crashes to the side of the tank and flops to the ground, unmoving, but still breathing.

"I win," she declares and her powers deactivate. She instantly loses consciousness, as the strain in both her body and mind take effect. Though thanks to her transformation, all of her grave wounds, such as her crushed intestines, have been fully healed, meaning she is not in danger of dying. She can hear voices calling her name, but they get further and further, though she has an idea who they might be, which makes her smile, at least mentally.

* * *

In a round table that seems to have been set in the middle of a grassy field, sit 12 people, looking with great interest in a crystal sphere that floats on top of the table. The sphere shows a certain girl with brown eyes and brown hair laying unconscious on the ground, while several other girls run to her to check her condition.

"It seems the girl has the potential to become a candidate," a man speaks up.

"The previous girl has the potential to become a candidate too, but her power was barely registered. This girl here, her powers have the potential to surpass even us," another man says.

"The powers of both are resembling mine and my sister's. Plus I think I have seen that girl somewhere," another person, a female woman this time, points at the brown haired girl. "I think we should eliminate them before they get any stronger."

"I agree with my sister, humans cannot be trusted with so much power."

"But we all agreed not to interfere with the realities."

"Half of you did, not us."

"You can't play with their lives, you aren't a god!"

"We have the power, may as well use it."

The air gets filled with voices that argue with each other, until a 13th person makes her appearance.

"That's enough!" she commands and everyone stops talking. "Since I've taken a liking in these two girls, you are to keep observing them until further notice, understood?" Everyone stands up and bows towards her.

"Yes Queen."

* * *

 **A/N: Finally, answers! By the way, if the last scene seemed a bit lacking, don't worry, it was meant to be that way. Next chapter will conclude the battle of Tokyo. After that I'll rewrite a couple of the old chapters and then release new chapters. On another note, if anyone wants to write an OC about these twelve beings, he/she is welcome.** **A** **nyway, a** **s always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and** **there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**


	26. Chapter 26: Aftermath

**The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 26: Aftermath**

* * *

Inside a dark void, Miho lies on the ground facing upwards. Her body stays motionless, only her chest going up and down being any indication she is still alive. All around her nothing but darkness. Suddenly, a small yellow orb of light appears a few meters away from her, floating about 1 and a half meters above the ground.

 _"Open your eyes,"_ a female voice whispers from the orb and Miho slowly opens her eyes. She looks all around her and finds nothing but pitch black darkness. Her eyes seem kinda unfocused and glazed, like she is barely registering her surroundings.

 _"Stand up,"_ the female voice commands and Miho slowly gets up without questioning the voice or her own actions.

 _"Look at me,"_ the voice commands and Miho turns to look directly at the orb, who changes color from yellow to gold. The moment her eyes set upon the orb, it falls to the ground and shatters. A shockwave shoots outwards from the impact point and the whole scenery of this weird world changes in an instant. The ground becomes a flower field, filled with flowers of various sizes, shapes and colors. The sky changes to an azure color, with tiny clouds littering it here and there. Birds cab be heard chirping in the background and a gentle breeze passes by, gently caressing her cheeks and hair.

The moment the shockwave passes through Miho, her eyes instantly focus, regaining their usual softness and charmingness, though they soon start showing concern and fear, as she frantically starts looking around at the unknown landscape. Taking a few deep breaths to calm herself, she starts thinking what happened before fainting. She remembers the attack on the lab, the huge blue pillar of Ether energy, stopping one of Odin's projectiles and confronting Mannheim inside the lab.

Then it was the stunt she pulled, absorbing Mannheim's pure Ether in order to "recharge" herself. Remembering the pain she fell after her intestines got crushed by Mannheim's punch, she subconsciously presses her right hand against her abdomen, the pain being still fresh on her mind. But after crashing on the ground, everything seem to be a blur. She knows she transformed and defeated Mannheim, that much she knows, but the finer details still elude her.

As she looks down on the ground, lost in her thoughts, a wolf materializes besides her, its black fur and red eyes glistening under this world's sunlight. Looking up to Miho, it sits on its butt, its tail swinging slowly from left to right and vice-versa.

 _"Master, are you alright?"_ the wolf asks with a female voice, though it doesn't open its mouth to speak.

"Hmm?" Getting pulled back to reality, or whatever the place she currently finds herself is, she looks at the wolf and smiles, "I'm fine, thank you. I was just thinking, that's all," she says, before her eyes widen in shock and realization. "Y-You c-c-can speak?!" she asks nervously, taking a step backwards. Last time she heard a wolf speaking, it didn't end very well.

"Who are you?!" she asks loudly, activating her powers and materializing two black kunai knives that crackle with red electricity.

 _"Please Master, be at ease. I am not your enemy; I'm merely a part of your powers that take form thanks to your subconscious. I can speak thanks to your powers growing,"_ the wolf informs her and Miho can feel the sincerity in its voice. Deactivating her powers, she sighs in relief and looks back at the wolf.

"If you are part of my powers, how come you have free will?" Miho asks out of curiosity, remembering the few instances that the wolf would appear and disappear regardless of whether she was using her powers or not.

 _"That, I don't know myself. It is indeed peculiar that I, a part of your powers, would have consciousness and free will. There is also one more thing,"_ the wolf says and stands up.

"What is it?" Miho asks, looking the wolf straight in the eyes.

Starting glowing dimly, the wolf bursts into a cloud of black smoke, which quickly shapes itself into a figure, before solidifying to a humanoid body. To be more specific, the wolf has transformed to a girl that has the same body proportions as her, ruby-red eyes and long, black hair. For some weird reason, that Miho can't explain, the girl has two black wolf ears on her head and a wolf's tail sprouting from above her butt. She wears a long-sleeved black shirt, with the sleeves being slightly longer than her arms, a red pleated skirt that goes till the middle of her thighs, and black boots.

Miho looks at her with a mixture of confusion and curiosity, raising an eyebrow at her. "Wait, you are a girl?" she blurts out, before noticing the twitching ears and swinging tail she has. "And what's with the ears and tail?"

"I simply copied your body, that's why you identify me as a girl. About the ears and tail, I thought that since your subconscious gave me the form of a wolf, I should retain at least some of these characteristics," she says with a neutral expression and Miho can feel sweat forming on her forehead. "Worry not about it though. Because of your current power level, I can't take this humanoid form outside of your mindscape...for now," she finishes, raising a thumbs-up at her with the same neutral expression.

"This doesn't make it sound any better," Miho says with an awkward smile, before a question pops in her mind. "If you retain some of your wolf characteristics, does that mean you're still behaving as one?" Miho creates a tennis ball and throws it at her, and the humanoid wolf just watches the tennis ball forming an arc in the air, then rolling and stopping in front of her. Raising her head, she looks at Miho with an annoyed expression, her tail swinging slowly from left to right.

"Master, I am a wolf, not a dog," she says, feeling her pride has been hurt by this simple action.

"Oops, my bad," Miho giggles awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck. "And please, call me Miho. Master sounds a bit weird."

"As you wish Master," the wolf says, bowing a little.

Wanting to get her mind of these embarrassing actions that are making her blush, she asks the wolf a question. "That reminds me, where exactly are we?"

"We are in your mindscape, Master," the wolf answers.

"Mindscape? You mean something like a dreamworld?" she asks and the wolf nods. "Interesting."

Without a warning, the dreamworld starts developing huge cracks everywhere, a bright white light seeping out of them.

"It seems you are regaining consciousness," the wolf says as the cracks keep getting larger and the light brighter.

"Than one last thing," Miho asks quickly. "How should I call you? Since you obviously have feelings and free will, you are a person."

Pondering for a bit, the wolf turns to face Miho, her tail swinging frantically left and right. "I'd love if you would call me Kuro, Master," she says with a smile.

"OK, Kuro," are the last words Miho mouths, before everything gets white and then pitch black.

* * *

Slowly waking up, Miho groans slightly and fidgets a little. She doesn't open her eyes, not because she can't, but because she doesn't want. Her whole body hurts like hell, especially her abdomen. From what she can feel, she is lying on a comfy bed and a sheet is covering her body till her neck. If what she remembers is right and not just a really weird dream, she should be at a hospital.

 _I am amazed I just didn't die outright with what I did,_ she thinks to herself, remembering the stunt she pulled against Mannheim. _Why would I do something so reckless?_

She feels so exhausted she starts drifting back to sleep, though her mind refuses to go back to slumber, and the whispers she can hear doesn't make it any easier. Opening her eyes slowly, she waits for her vision to focus. She can see a white ceiling and the lighting level of the room isn't too bright, so she deducts it must be evening. Rising slowly, the whispers stop and silence ensues across the room. As she suspected, she is inside a hospital room, though she did not expect to have one only to herself. Looking around, she spots some very familiar faces looking directly at her. The leader of each Ooarai's Senshadou teams is present, along with the girls from her team and the Student Council.

"It seems our sleeping beauty has woken up," Anzu says lazily, lying on one of the couches the room has and eating a chip of dried sweet potato.

"Commander!" everyone exclaims, and near instantly crowd the bed in which she lies. Miho flinches a bit from the volume of the voices.

"The commander is fine!" Azusa exclaims and hugs Miho, unwittingly pressuring Miho on her abdomen. Despite the stabbing pain she feels, she hugs Azusa back. Seeing Miho awake, Yukari barely manages to restrain herself from jumping to hug Miho and maybe cause her more injuries.

"Welcome back commander," Erwin says with her usual cocky smile, tipping her peaked hat slightly.

"We are glad to see you again commander," Sodoko says, snapping a salute.

"You are a tough one commander," Satoko says with a grin.

"What you did was like it came straight out of a videogame," Nekota says with a smile, readjusting her glasses a bit.

"You certainly have guts, commander!" Noriko exclaims and lifts a fist in the air. Miho grimaces at the word guts, since she had to crush her own in order to win her fight against Mannheim.

"Everyone, I'm so happy you are okay," she smiles back at them. Noticing that there are some girls that are missing, she turns to face Anzu. "Where are the others?"

"They are exploring the base," Anzu says, grabbing another chip from the bag of chips she is holding, and points it at her. "I have to say, you have a really nice workplace."

"Y-Yeah...i guess," she smiles awkwardly, not very comfortable with telling the rest what job she really does. "S-So, for how long have I been unconscious?"

"About a day," Hana informs her.

"We were really worried you know! One moment you are fighting that guy and the next you both vanish inside a hole in the ceiling!" Saori says.

"Sorry to make you worry Saori," Miho smiles back at her and then a question pops in her mind. "If I was out for a whole day, where did all of you stay?" Miho asks Anzu and the others.

"A guy called "Director" offered to accommodate us here for a while, until we sort out where we will be living," Anzu says. "He seems to be a very nice person." Although Anzu says these words with a smile, she can tell that Anzu has more she wants to tell about him, but now it's not the appropriate time.

 _*Knock* *knock*_

Hearing a knocking sound, everyone turns to look at the room's door. "Come in," Miho says and the door opens to reveal a boy with blond hair and blue eyes.

"Pardon my intrusion," he says, when he notices the room is full of people. "Should I come later?"

"No, it's fine," Miho shakes her head. "Please come in Tyler." As Tyler steps inside, everyone's eyes fall on him. Saori is already sweating bullets, her senses telling her to grab Tyler and get out of here as fast as she can.

Looking at the girls in front of him, Tyler takes a guess as to who they are. "You must be the rest of Ooarai's Senshadou team," he says with a smile. "My name is Davis Tyler, it is nice to meet you," he says and then turns to Miho. "Annabelle sent me to apologize on her behalf for the little rerouting she did during our mission."

"Its okay, don't worry about it. How are the rest?"

"Reiji is dealing with the reports and Annabelle is looking over Odysseus and waits when she will wake up," Tyler answers her. "How have you been. We heard you had quite the fight with an enemy user."

"I am fine now, though I didn't walk out of the fight unscathed," Miho says, gesturing at her bruised arms. "How is Odysseus? She had to fight 2 users at the same time if I am not wrong."

"She won, though she got a small concussion in her head as a trophy," he chuckles a little. "As for the 2 Ether users...let's just say Odysseus made a mess with them," he says in a grim tone and the girls, who had been following the conversation shiver involuntarily.

"I-I see," Miho stutters, knowing that Odysseus is capable of doing a lot of questionable things.

"Anyway, since I'm here, mind if I steal Saori for a little bit," he says out of the blue and everyone looks at him curiously. Saori can sense where this is going, feeling that it will end with her getting very embarrassed so she slowly moves towards the door.

"Excuse me Mr. Davis, but how do you know Saori and the commander?" Azusa asks with a curious tone.

"Our teams got assigned together in a couple of missions and we became friends in the end," he answers honestly. "As for Saori, we are-"

"Friends!"Saori says quickly and grabs Tyler's hand. "We are friends! So, what did you want to talk to me for?" she says with an awkward smile while slowly dragging him out of the room.

"Actually, he is her boyfriend," Mako says absent-mindedly and everyone's eyes widen as they turn to face Saori, whose cheeks are crimson from embarrassment. Silence permeates in the air for a few seconds.

"What?!" everyone yells and Azusa instantly bolts out of the room to go and inform the rest of her team, with Saori behind her in hot pursuit and still dragging Tyler with surprising ease.

"Didn't mean to do that," Mako says slowly and everyone giggles.

"Girls, do you mind if you leave us alone with Miho for a little while?" Anzu tells to the rest of the girls with a serious tone. "I need to discuss some things with her."

Hearing the tone of her voice, the girls bid farewell to Miho and wish her to become well soon, before exiting. As the door closes, the only people remaining inside are Miho and the student council.

"Before we begin, do you mind if I ask you a couple questions, president?" Miho asks, her mind being plagued by several questions that need to be answered.

"Ask away," Anzu replies, standing up from the couch, approaching Miho's bed slowly. Her bag of chips has long been emptied, so Anzu crushes the bag with her hands and disposes it at a nearby bin. Both Yuzu and Momo stand at the edges of the couch, which is located opposite from the bed in which Miho lies.

"Do the girls know about the Ether? And about my...job?" she asks slowly, her voice quivering ever so slightly.

"Yes, they do," Anzu pauses a bit, before continuing. "You don't need to worry, they know of your circumstances. Also...we had our fare share of extinguishing lives too," he informs Miho. "And you don't need to call me president any more, just Anzu is okay." Anzu manages to crack a grin at Miho. "You did save us three times after all."

"O-Ok. Second question. How did Mannheim manage to capture you? We were in Kyoto for the interview when the earthquakes struck, and we only found the carrier by chance, about 5 and a half months after the earthquakes ended?" Miho says, not sure when they did find their school carrier.

"About a week or 2 after the earthquakes, we decided to beach the carrier, since we were running low on fuel and supplies. After unloading the tanks on the beach below, to use them to scout the surrounding area, the Institute's forces attacked us out of nowhere. Long story short, some of the girls retaliated and it created a snowball effect within the teams, resulting in the deaths of some of the enemy forces. In the end, they managed to subdue us by immobilizing the tanks and capturing the carrier." Anzu sighs bitterly at the memories of the failed defense, putting her face in the open palm of her left hand and shaking her head slowly in frustration. "In the end, we failed as the student council. The occupants of the carrier were divided on groups, based on age and some where sent out of the country, while others remained in Japan, in some of the Institute's bases. Since Mannheim was looking for you, though, we managed to make a deal to make sure the occupants would remain safe."

"I-I...see," Miho says slowly, furious at herself for not being able to help her friends. Maybe if she was there, she could convince Mannheim to take her and leave her friends alone, since they wouldn't pose a threat to his plans.

"What about Yukari's parents? Are they still here?" she asks quickly.

"If I remember correctly, they were sent abroad, either in China, or down in Australia, where the Institute's presence is strong," Anzu says, a difficult expression etched on her face. "Now, before we start discussing anything serious, I need to inform you of something." Anzu coughs a couple times to clear her throat. "When some of Blackout's forces entered the lab, they found two girls from our school that had willingly undergone Serum experiments and successfully developed powers. Their classification is Class-C, which means they were injected with mesium-level Serums. In retrospect, you are Class-S, meaning your Serum was a high-level one."

"And since they are Ether users, they were assigned to the Ether Force," Miho guesses and Anzu nods back.

"They were asked if they wanted to join and when they heard you lead that department, they immediately accepted," Anzu grins. "It seems that you are still popular, even after two years of a chaotic apocalypse." Miho slightly blushes at Anzu's remark. "Yuzu will give you their files to see. These are the originals from the Institute, so the information they contain is legit."

Yuzu walks next to Miho and hands her two manila folders, marked with red letters at the exterior that say "CONFIDENTIAL". After handing them, Yuzu returns back to where she was standing and Anzu resumes talking. "They told me that the girls have to go through Infantry training first, so they aren't available for the time being." Anzu then turns to face both Momo and Yuzu. "What we discuss from this point, was never mentioned," Anzu says with a serious expression and both Momo and Yuzu nod. "Tell me Miho, during the experiments, did you know a girl named Sakura?"

The question catches Miho totally off guard, as several seconds pass before her brain can form a coherent sentence. "S-Sakura? I-I knew a girl named Sakura, but how do you know about her?" she stutters, looking at Anzu with slight apprehension.

"Her full name was Sakura Kadotani," Anzu says. At this, Miho widens her eyes as much as she can and gasps at the revelation that has hit her like a bag of bricks. "She was my sister, which went missing 13 years ago. She was pared with you during the experiments and was referred to as Subject 22." She gazes intently at Miho's eyes, her usually lazy attitude nowhere to be found, replaced by a serious expression. "You were the last one to have contact with her, before the project was terminated. I need to know what happened to her."

Miho audibly gulps, her hands starting to tremble and her forehead sweating. As she opens her mouth to speak, she knows. The truth...is going to be painful for both Anzu...and herself.

* * *

Opening her eyes slowly, Odysseus finds herself lying on something soft, gazing at a gray sky, the sun being absent for some reason. Yet, despite this absence, Odysseus can see clearly everything around her, though the colors seem to be dull and lifeless. Sitting up, she notices the ground is covered by fluffy and white snow, with the occasional leafless tree standing here and there. Looking around her, she spots two huge landmasses in the distance, floating in the air like floating islands that have come out straight out of a fairy tail. Huge black chains connect these floating landmasses with the place she is and since they are at the same height, she assumes she is on a floating island too.

"Where the fuck am I?" she asks loudly, standing up and surveying her surroundings a little bit better.

"Pipe down bitch, I'm trying to sleep here," a voice identical to Odysseus' says, and Odysseus instantly turns to face the one who spoke.

"Listen buddy, I am in-" Odysseus says before pausing, her brain stopping any cognitive function and for a good reason. Next to her, on the snowy ground lay not one, but two exact copies of her, sleeping like there is nothing wrong with this whole situation.

"What is going on?" Odysseus blurts out, her mind finally having processed what she is seeing in front of her.

"I told you to shut up!" one of the copies growls in frustration, sitting up and looking at Odysseus. Several seconds pass, before the copy raises both eyebrows at Odysseus and asks. "Who the fuck are you and why you look like me."

"That's what I'd like to know to," Odysseus answers back with confusion written all over her face.

"Both of you, please be silent for a second," the last copy says at them, already standing up and thinking of an explanation for their current predicament. After several minutes of silence and several awkward glances between Odysseus and the first copy, the second copy finally speaks. "I think I know why we all look alike," she says slowly with a serious expression.

"You mean it?!" Odysseus says excitedly.

"About fucking time," the first copy grumbles, finally standing up and dusting off any snow that might have been stuck on her clothes.

"We are all Odysseus," the second copy says and both Odysseus and the first copy look at her with a blank face.

"If I had a table in front of me, I'd flip it," the first copy says with an emotionless tone. "But sadly, I don't."

"We kinda figured that out," Odysseus says, smiling awkwardly at the second copy. "What we want to know, is the reason for it."

"You see, our mind is broken enough so that based on the external stimuli, we will behave differently. Normally, we are behaving all cheerful and childishly, like you," she points at Odysseus, who listens to the second copy's lecture with great interest. "When things start to get taxing, mentally, we start behaving like me, being quiet and calculating." This time, she points at herself. "And when things go beyond a certain limit, we literally lose any scraps of sanity we have-"

"And go all creepy slasher mode like her," Odysseus says and points at the first copy.

"Hey, I'm not a creepy slasher!" the first copy angrily shakes a fist at Odysseus, before laughing like a deranged individual on a killing spree.

"Suuure. I am calling you crazy Odysseus from now on!" Odysseus says excitedly.

"Then I'm calling you childish Odysseus!" crazy Odysseus says angrily, pinching and pulling Odysseus cheeks.

"Muu, I prefer playful," Odysseus pouts in a cute way, which causes crazy Odysseus to get even angrier at her...self, I guess.

"And I'll be smart Odysseus. Anyway. As you can tell, we are the same person, but because of our mind's fragmented nature," she points at some large, black cracks in the sky and then at the chained landmasses, "we represent one of the three behavioral patterns we may adopt, depending on our current mental state," she finishes and both crazy and playful Odysseus look at her in understanding.

"So what you say is that we are currently inside our mindscape, which reflects our mental stability," playful Odysseus says slowly.

"Which means, since our mind is mentally unstable and fragmented, so is our mental projection," crazy Odysseus thinks aloud and smart Odysseus nods. "It's like playing house, with only one kid doing every role at the same time."

"You are correct. Though if that theory is correct, we should be able to share thoughts," smart Odysseus suggests and playful Odysseus starts jumping up and down.

"Oh, oh, I'll think of something and you'll tell me what I thought," she says with a sly smile, before thinking of something. Near instantaneously, both crazy and smart Odysseus' faces become crimson red from embarrassment.

"H-H-Have you no shame?!" crazy Odysseus yells at playful Odysseus, who only grins in response. "Y-You pervert!"

"S-She is right, you know. Doing something like that to someone," smart Odysseus adds, hugging her body rightly and shivering a bit.

"Oh come on, I'm sure Annabelle would love it~" she says seductively, a lewd grin appearing on her face. "Also, if we are the same person, wouldn't we have the same desires?"

"Unfortunately no. It has to do with our fragmented mind. Each time we change behavior, our desires and goals change too," smart Odysseus answers playful Odysseus' question.

"Hey, I have a question for both of you," crazy Odysseus says and both smart and playful Odysseus turn to face her. "Has anyone wondered why our mindscape has this shape? There are three landmasses that float over an abyss, they are covered in snow with leafless trees and there are weird cylinder-like objects sticking out of the ground," she gestures at the white cylinders that are barely visible.

"It is because this mindscape is influenced from your mental state and memories," a female voice answers and all three Odysseus turn to face the originator of the voice.

Approaching slowly is a female figure that has the same body proportions as them, wears an icy-blue tunic and a dark blue miniskirt. She also wears a white pantyhose and black boots. On top of the tunic, she wears a hooded cloak of the same color, the hood covering her head and trying to contain her long white hair that spill out of it from the left side and cascade till her abdomen. Her violet eyes scan each and every one of the three girls, though they seem like they contain no life inside them. In her right hand rests a white scythe, the blade somehow glistening despite the surroundings' dull colors.

"Who are you?" crazy Odysseus asks, taking a step forwards.

 _She must be the Reaper that accompany us when we activate our powers,_ smart Odysseus thinks when she sees the scythe and the other two get her thought instantly.

 _This way of talking is fun!_ playful Odysseus thinks and the other two get her thought.

"I am a part of your power, given form and free will through your subconscious," the Reaper says with her emotionless voice. "I have this humanoid body, for which I used your own body proportions, because your power has increased."

"Does this mean you can take this form on the physical world too?" smart Odysseus asks.

"Unfortunately no. Your power isn't enough for such level of manipulation," the Reaper informs.

"So much for a level-up," playful Odysseus murmurs in annoyance.

"Regarding this mindscape, what can you tell us?" crazy Odysseus asks.

"The three landmasses that are chained together, represent what remains of your sanity. The abyss in which they float, is your mind that has already been lost due to traumatic events," she informs them and the three girls look at each other with concerned expressions. "There are also more landmasses, closer to the abyss."

"More?" playful Odysseus asks and the Reaper nods.

"These, are memories that your mind has repressed, because they threatened to completely destroy your mind and your sanity."

"Can we somehow recover them?" smart Odysseus asks with a serious expression.

"I can use my power to forcefully make them resurface, but the shock of so many memories surfacing at once, could lead to the complete destruction of the three main landmasses...and the last scraps of sanity you hold," she warns the girls.

"Screw this! If our fucking battle with that bastard and his puppets was any indication, we could probably blow the whole base to nothing, if we go insane again!" crazy Odysseus yells to the other two.

"How ironic. The crazy one doesn't want to go insane," playful Odysseus laughs, earning an embarrassed expression from her.

"D-Don't get me wrong, I couldn't care less for the people in there, but it would most likely kill Annabelle."

"Can't argue with that."

"I say we take the risk," smart Odysseus says to the other two. "As you said, if we turn insane, we risk of blowing up everything in the base, but if we don't resurface the memories now, we risk resurfacing them during battle and potentially hurting our friends and allies."

"Fine!" crazy Odysseus sighs in defeat, throwing both arms in the air. "If anything goes wrong, I'm blaming you for it," she says then facepalms at the absurdity of her comment, since she will be blaming herself technically.

"Whatever, I just want to get out of here," playful Odysseus comments.

"As you wish, Master," the Reaper says, before raising her scythe in the air. Everything starts shaking and the three Odysseus grab their heads as an unbearable pain stabs through them.

"I forgot to mention that this is a very painful process," the Reaper says with a neutral expression, unfazed by her master's suffering. Smaller floating islands start rising from below the main landmasses and when they reach about a hundred meters higher than them, black chains shoot at the landmasses and Lodge themselves in the ground, throwing huge chunks of it everywhere. As playful Odysseus tries to look around with her blurry vision, she sees that each floating island has a different "biome" of shorts in it. One has a destroyed army base in a snowy plain, another has a big underground arena of sorts, filled with different stasis cells and machinery and another has a flaming building that looks like an orphanage.

As she falls to the ground, she feels like her head is going to be ripped in half and her brain will just explode outwards. Her vision starts blackening and she spots the Reaper saying something, though she can't hear her voice, since her head is pounding like crazy. Closing her eyes, she loses consciousness for just a moment, which is enough for her to regain consciousness in the real world.

* * *

Snapping her eyes wide open, Odysseus immediately sits up on the bed and holds her bandaged head as tightly as she can, feeling it will explode at any given moment. "Fuck, it hurts so much!" she cries out loudly, squeezing shut her already filled with tears of agonizing pain eyes, and the tears flow on her cheeks and finally fall on the sheet that is covering her body.

"Odysseus, what is wrong?!" Annabelle asks quickly in concern, standing up from the chair she was sitting and dashing at the side of Odysseus.

"It hurts! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!" she continues to cry, her fingers pressing the top of her head harder and harder. In fact she presses so hard that her fingernails start digging in the flesh and blood starts running out of the self-inflicted cuts. Seeing this, Annabelle grabs both of Odysseus' hands and tries to pry them off of her head.

"Reiji, go get a nurse now!" she yells at Reiji, who is already rushing out of the room, mere minutes after having arrived to see how his commander is.

"Make it stop!" Odysseus shouts at the top of her lungs, the pain starting to overload her brain. Using sheer strength alone, she manages to grab Annabelle's forearms and squeezes them as hard as she can. Annabelle can feel her blood flow to her arms being stopped and a warm liquid running on them, but her mind focuses on calming Odysseus.

"Odysseus, tell me what is wrong?!" she shouts, but Odysseus keeps screaming from the pain.

"It hurts, it hurts so much! Someone make it stop!" she keeps screaming, unaware of Annabelle.

"God dammit Elpida, tell me what is wrong!" she shouts at the top of her lungs, which seems to grab Odysseus' attention, because she turns to face Annabelle and snaps her eyes wide open, which causes Annabelle to freeze in place when she looks at them. They are quivering not from pain, but from fear and terror.

"I remember...Annabelle," she whispers in an equally quivering voice, looking directly at Annabelle's eyes. "I remember everything." Her grip on Annabelle's arms start weakening as the pain slowly subsides and Annabelle can feel the warmth of blood circulating on her hands once more. "The horrors I have seen." Her hands start trembling and she covers her face with her palms. "The horrors that I have committed." Fearing she might start screaming again, Annabelle gently pulls her in a tight embrace, placing her head in her chest.

"Shh, everything is fine now," she whispers in a soothing voice, gently caressing Odysseus' blonde hair. "You are safe here. No one will hurt you."

"T-The things I have seen...a-and done, oh God," Odysseus stutters and hugs Annabelle tightly. "I remember everything." Odysseus starts trembling, so Annabelle pulls her even closer to her body.

"Everything will be fine Elpida. You did nothing wrong," Annabelle reassures her with a smile, trying to withhold her own tears of sadness from running out of her eyes.

"Hey, I brought a nurse," Reiji says quickly, entering the room with a nurse and immediately closing the door behind him. "There are a lot of people outside who want to know what's happening. Her screams could be heard from the end of the hallway," he informs Annabelle and then notices two huge hand-shaped bruises covered with blood on her forearms. "What happened to your arms?"

"Nothing, Odysseus was just a little clingy," she sighs, still hugging her. "At least she calmed down," she says, looking at Odysseus who is silently crying.

"So, what happened?" Reiji asks, as the nurse goes to check Odysseus' self-inflicted wounds and Annabelle's arms.

"She started screaming about remembering everything and things she had seen and done," Annabelle says with a sad expression and Reiji looks at her with an alarmed expression.

"It's like last time," he says slowly and Annabelle nods.

"Yeah. At least this time there wasn't any bloodshed." Hearing this, the nurse tenses up, though she continues checking the injuries Odysseus has.

"What am I going to do with you?" Annabelle says with a sad expression, gazing at Odysseus who seems to have gone back to sleep, though she still clings on Annabelle like a scared child.

* * *

Inside the Director's office, he, Teruo and Misako are all looking at a tablet. Its screen is full of text that scrolls at a moderately slow speed and all three of them look intently at it.

"How could they come in possession of this information?" Misako asks slowly, looking at the scrolling text with a serious expression.

"It doesn't matter how they obtained them," Teruo says with a booming voice. "What matters is that they have in their possession sensitive data that could ruin Blackout's plans."

"Ah, yes, Blackout. The PMC that provided Black Lotus with children," a man with short blond hair and blue eyes, says. He wears a brown shirt, gray pants and a white lab coat.

"Who are you?! Guards!" Misako shouts and the soldiers that guard the Director's office enter, their weapons already raised. The man lazily flicks his right wrist and both guards fall to the ground unconscious. Misako instantly tenses at this and even Teruo looks alarmed.

"Where are my manners? I'm Dr. Edward Mannheim, lead scientist of the Starfall project. Though I'm sure you already know about me," he smirks at the three people in front of him.

"What do you want Mannheim?" the Director asks with a neutral expression.

"Just checking out the base," he says, looking all around the room. "I have to say, your equipment is a lot less advanced than the Institute's, but I suppose it will have to suffice for now." Taking a small piece of paper from one of his lab coat's pockets, he puts it in the Director's desk. "This will be the equipment I'll need for the lab in the Ether Force's base."

"How do you know about that?!" Misako says loudly. "This is classified information!"

"I know a lot of things I shouldn't know, Miss Ariyoshi Misako." With this, Mannheim vanishes into thin air, before Misako can even ask him how he knows her name.

"Misako, notify the medical personnel to come and pick the unconscious soldiers," the Director says and Misako complies.

"Do you know Mannheim?" Teruo asks the Director.

"I had seen him once, when I met the board of directors of Black Lotus," he says. "But it matters not now. Have you found the soldiers that viewed this information?"

"Unfortunately no. Despite the bombardment from Odin, they seem to have escaped the city," Teruo reports.

"I see," the Director responds. Ejecting a small SD card from the tablet, the scrolling text vanishes. "We might have to speed up our plans." Crashing the small SD card with his right hand, he throws the shattered card at a bin under his desk.

"Should I get in contact with our contacts in America?" Teruo asks.

"Yes. Tell them to expect a package in one month."

"Wouldn't it be a waste though? Both of them are really powerful."

We might not be able to control them. And sacrifices have to be made, if we want to unite Japan. We'll try the diplomatic route first. If this doesn't work, we will resort to Plan B," the Director says and Teruo nods in response.

* * *

 **A/N: Finally, the chapter has been completed and there are another bunch of questions that need to be answered. Anyway, you might have to wait for a little bit till the story progresses, since I want to rewrite chapters 6 through 15. The OC submission thing for the Ether Lords will be open till then, so if you have any ideas, or are bored and don't know what to do, send one.** **A** **nyway, a** **s always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and** **there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**


	27. Mini-Chapter 1: A Normal evening

**A/N: Sorry guys, but no rewritten chapter 7 for today. Maybe in a couple days, since as a human being I got lazy and distracted and wrote this dummy scene, which is really funny. Maybe I'll make it an omake and leave it for everyone to read it and laugh. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!**

 **A/N2: I decided to leave it up, so future readers can see it and laugh...hopefully at the chapter's contents and not at my writing skills.**

* * *

 **The Ether Conflict**

 **Mini-Chapter 1: A _Normal_ Evening**

* * *

 **Blackout's Main Base**

 **Female Dorms**

 **Room 45**

Inside a certain room in the female dorms in Blackout's main base, a certain redhead with emerald green eyes sits on her bed, still wearing her uniform and waiting for her friend to exit from the bathroom,which has been occupied for the past 2 hours. In her left hand she holds an open notepad that has a hard cover colored dark red, its corners adorned with intricate gold colored designs.

She seems to be writing something with a pencil, concentrating fully on it, as evidenced by her serious expression. Stopping briefly, she starts reading what she has written, twirling the pencil with her right hand. Frowning a bit, she uses the eraser the pencil has on its back to erase something. Writing it again, she reads what she wrote and smiles, happy with the change she made. Hearing the door of the bathroom opening, she looks up from her notepad and spots a girl with long silky blonde hair and light purple eyes looking back at her. The towel she has wrapped around her to cover her ample body proportions is barely covering her chest and nether regions, which Annabelle notices quite quickly, but chooses to remain silent about.

"I'm done with bathing Annabelle," the blonde girl says and starts walking towards her bed.

"Look who decided to get out of the bath. It took you only, what...2 hours?" Annabelle comments with a slight hint of sarcasm. "What where you doing in there anyways, Odysseus?"

"I'm quite offended by your comment," Odysseus says, faking offense. Sitting on the bed, she crosses her arms under her chest and turns her face away from Annabelle. "A girl has many needs you know. Relieving stress is a big deal," she cutey pouts at her redhead friend.

"I know, but it would be really nice if you would keep your voice down when... _"relieving stress"_ ," Annabelle smirks and Odysseus turns her head away from her.

"I don't know what you are talking about," she feigns ignorance, whistling innocently.

"Sure you don't," Annabelle responds, placing her pencil and notepad on top of her bed. "By the way, it's your turn to make dinner."

"Why?!" Odysseus whines cutely. "Your food is always better than mine!" she argues, trying to persuade Annabelle to cook. "Mine looks like a hellspawn that will eats _US_ for dinner."

"Stop trying to overexaggerate things," Annabelle tells her. "Either you cook, or we have empty plates for tonight's dinner."

"But..." Odysseus tries to protest, but gets cut off by Annabelle.

"No buts!" she says in an authoritative voice.

"Fiiine," Odysseus says with a bored expression, not looking forward to cooking today. It's not that she is a bad cook, she just prefers Annabelle's cooking over her own. As Annabelle enters the bathroom and closes the door, Odysseus turns to look at the open notepad that lays on Annabelle's bed. Hearing the door getting locked, Odysseus immediately pounces at her friend's bed like a predator pounces on its prey and grabs the notepad. "Hehehe, I'll get my revenge by reading whatever you were writing my redhead friend," Odysseus grins evilly for a moment. "Or I'll uncover her plans for world domination via scorn and tea," she murmurs to herself. Picking it up, she starts inspecting it, first its exterior.

"Ooh, shiiiny!" she exclaims, noticing the intricate gold designs. Having sated her curiosity about the exterior of the notepad, she opens it at the first page, where in red calligraphic letters, the words "Annabelle's Diary" are written. "She always did such beautiful letters," she muses, checking what has been written inside the diary. "Mine on the other hand are more like hieroglyphics," she sighs in a defeated tone, remembering all the times she tried to make her writing better, only to fail miserably. "I guess I could work as an encoder, if I feel the need to make extra money," she chuckles, before landing on a very interesting page. "Hmm? What do we have here?" she wonders as she takes a closer look. "Chapter 14: Eternal Love," she reads aloud from the notepad. "Now that's interesting!" she grins, before starting reading.

"The battle was ferocious. The battlefield bore the scars of many conflicts, yet the ones from this clash were as if the gods themselves had descented on the mortal realm and clashed with each other."

* * *

Huge chunks of earth were missing and a lot of tiny craters made the plain in which they had carved themselves look like the moon's surface. Two opponents stared at each other, watching closely for any sudden movement or opening they could exploit.

At one side of this warzone stood a female knight, who had crimson red long hair and emerald green eyes that shone brightly under the midday sun. Her armor, which was dented and had claw marks all over it, beautifully glistened under the sunlight, its gold edges and intricate patterns showing her rank as a captain of the Royal Guard. In her left hand she held an enchanted shield, strengthened with magic so it could withstand even the heaviest of blows. The shield bore the emblem of the kingdom and the crest of the Royal family. In her right hand she held a majestic blade made of different exotic metals and crystals, a sign of her many adventures and countless battles. The blade had a handle made of a purple crystal, adorned with various jewels, while the blade had a shiny red color with small flames popping out of its surface from time to time, indicating the sword was magical. Besides her laid her fallen comrades that had been struck down from her opponent. They, too, had claw marks all over them, some were twisted in really unnatural ways, and others were laying on the ground with missing arms, legs or a hefty chunk of their body.

On the other side of the warzone stood a creature of legends, closely scanning the female knight. It had green leaf-shaped scales that could shatter steel with ease, two majestic yet terrifying wings on its back and a tail that resembled a vine and stretched for over 3 meters. The creature that stood before the knight was a dragon, a being that could rival the gods in power and outwit even the wisest of people. On top of that, they had unparalleled strength and could use magic that even races with extremely good affinity, such as the elves or the demons and fairies, could not attain. More specifically, it was a plant dragon, or a nature dragon as texts referred to them. They had the power to control plants and even sap their energy to heal themselves. In short, they were pretty hard to kill, as with any dragon for that matter. But, as everything in life, they had a fatal weakness, and in their case, it was fire.

"This is your last chance to release the princess, dragon!" the knight shouts, her voice showing no signs of fear.

"Are you mocking me, human?" the dragon laughs, looking at the knight with amusement. "All of your comrades are dead and you are wounded, while I am still fine."

"You are still a hatchling, meaning you can't use your full power," the knight points out. "I can still strike you down!"

"I must admit, you have some excellent observational skills," the dragon admits. "but a puny human like you won't be able to even scratch me in your condition," it mocks.

"That's what one of your kind said to me once," she says and points her sword at the dragon. "Guess who survived," she smirks and the dragon shows its sharp teeth at her, lowering its horned head to prepare for battle.

"We'll see about that, insect," the dragon growls and hits its right arm on the ground. Vines erupt all around the knight, rising at least 5 meters in the air. Aiming their pointy ends at the knight, they shoot down with speed that far surpasses that a human eye can track, but the knight doesn't even look up. She merely swings her sword once and the vines get cut in several small singed pieces, which greatly surprises the dragon.

"That's impossible! No sword can cut my vines!" the dragon shouts.

"This is no normal sword," the knight says as her sword's blade gets engulfed in bright red fire. "And I am no ordinary human." Looking at the knight's emerald green eyes, the dragon sees that her pupils are vertically slit, an indication she is not human.

"You are a demon?!" the dragon asks incredulously. "Why would you ally yourself with the humans?!" The dragon keeps spawning more and more vines that get cut and burned by the knight. "Your kinds have been in war for over a century!"

"You see, back in my homeland, I was a princess," the knight says and disappears out of view, reappearing behind the dragon to slash at its tail. The dragon quickly avoids it and whips the knight, thankfully hitting her shield and sending her flying for about 20 meters. Grinding through the already scarred terrain, she just stands up and dusts off herself.

"You mean you are the Demon King's daughter?" the dragon asks slowly.

"One of the many, but since my mother was a concubine, I was treated very harshly. And when she died, I was kicked out of the castle," the knight says, disgust and hatred filling the air around her. "Demons value only power and status, something that always disgusted me. Because of these things I ran away from my homeland, until days later, I found myself in human territory. Not that it was any better, most humans would immediately try to flee or kill me if they saw me." The dragon uses its wings to lift its body in the air, and starts spewing poison from its mouth in an attempt to kill the demonic knight. The knight simply raises her shield and a white light shines everywhere, neutralizing the poison clouds instantly.

"One day, I made the mistake to enter a village and try to steal some food. For all the magic power I held at my fingertips, I still needed to eat. I got caught in the act and probably would have been killed, if it wasn't for the princess you have abducted," the knight says and looks for a moment at a dome made of thorny brown vines that is positioned at the other end of the war zone.

* * *

"Oh, what an intense battle!" Odysseus exclaims as she keeps reading page after page, until she reaches the end. "Ohhhh, so the knight is in love with the princess. Though I have to say, I half-expected for this to be love between boys," she says and grimaces a little. "I always hated Yaoi." Reaching the last scene, a serene smile forms on her face. "Oh, how cute! The knight and princess built a house in the woods and raised a cute family," she says joyfully, when suddenly realization hits her. "Wait, if they are both females...how on earth did they have kids," it's the first question that pops in her mind. "and secondly, why do the characters seem so similar to me and Annabelle?" Her cheeks start flushing red slowly, becoming redder and redder as time passes. "Wouldn't that mean that maybe Annabelle is..."

"Odysseus, what are you doing in my bed?" Odysseus hears a voice calling to her and instantly jumps in the air like a scared cat.

"This is not what it looks like Annabelle!" Odysseus says quickly, putting her hands in front of her. It seems that despite the whole assassin training she had gone through and the war she had fought in, she still overreacts when getting scared. Annabelle, who has just exited the bathroom and is, too, wrapped with a towel, sees what Odysseus is holding with her right hand and immediately her face becomes as red as her hair.

"Wh-Why do you have my diary?" she asks quietly, which greatly unnerves Odysseus.

"W-Well, you see...eheheh...it is a funny story," Odysseus says with an awkward laugh, trying to find a believable excuse. "I was...going to the kitchen to start cooking and stumbled by mistake on your bed and threw down your diary, so when I picked it up...uum...I saw the story you were writing and I was curious about it, so I kept reading and reading and before I knew it, I read it till the end," she giggles at the end in an attempt to look innocent, but she fails spectacularly. "I have to say, it is very well written...ehehehe," she laughs innocently. _If any God or God's exist out there, please don't let me die, I am to young to leave this world!_

"You did what?!" Annabelle shouts and Odysseus takes a step back. "That's it, I'm putting you down!" she declares and storms forward so fast that Odysseus can't react in time and gets tackled by Annabelle onto her bed. Mounting her, Annabelle raises her hands over her head and shoots Odysseus a death glare.

 **"You have seen too much,"** she says darkly, her eyes full of killing intent. **"It is time for you to vanish, Elpida,"** she chuckles darkly as her hands move slowly towards Odysseus.

"No, anything but that, Annabelle!" Odysseus pleads, her face having grown pale from fear. "I'll do anything you want, I beg you!"

"Can you erase what you read from your head?" Annabelle asks, the dark aura that surrounded her vanishing.

"Why? I really liked when you held me on your strong arms and kissed me passionately my beautiful knight," she says seductively and Annabelle's dark aura of certain death becomes so thick, it starts becoming visible.

 **"Your time has come. Accept your punishment!"** she shouts and her hands shoot forward to...

"No! Ahahaha, please Annabelle, stop!" Odysseus manages to say between her laughter, under Annabelle's constant tickle assault.

"You thought you could escape after reading my diary?" Annabelle grins as she continues tickling Odysseus, whose face has become red from laughing too much.

"Please Annabelle, I beg you! Hahahaha! I can't take it any more!" Odysseus flails her body like a fish out of the water, but Annabelle remains firmly on top of her.

"If you cook tomorrow too, I'll stop," Annabelle says and Odysseus starts hitting her left hand on the mattress of the bed.

"I give in, I give in!" she says and Annabelle stops tickling her. Odysseus seizes this moment and grabs Annabelle's towel.

Annabelle looks at her hand, then Odysseus herself. "You wouldn't dare," she says slowly and Odysseus just grins at her.

"Lesson number one my dear knight!" Odysseus says in a superior voice. "Never let down your guard!" she finishes and yanks the towel, causing Annabelle to yelp in surprise and try to cover her exposed body, while Odysseus just starts laughing. "Now present to your princess a feast that befits royalty!" she exclaims while looking at Annabelle, wiping the minute blood that starts trickling from her nose.

"Why you!" she grumbles and grabs Odysseus' towel. "If I am going down, then so do you!" she says and yanks the towel too, causing Odysseus' body to be exposed.

"Noooo, how will I ever get married, now that you have tainted this maiden's pure body with your lustful gaze!" Odysseus cries in a fake manner, though Annabelle has gone quiet all of a sudden. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"I-I'm sorry," Annabelle says as she eyes the numerous scars Odysseus' body has, which vary greatly in size and shape, going from tiny ones, to some that go from her abdomen all the way up to her chest.

"Oh come on, why the sudden mood change? It's not the first time you have seen them and it's not like I got them recently."

"I know, but...it must have hurt a lot," Annabelle says in a sad voice, handing her back her towel. "I'm sorry," she apologizes.

"Don't worry," Odysseus reassures her. "At least now I can say with confidence that I am a battle-hardened Amazon!" she exclaims and pumps her fist in the air.

"Hey, can I ask you a question? You don't have to answer if you don't want," she says hesitantly.

"Sure, go ahead!" Odysseus says cheerfully, unfazed by the sudden mood change.

"The scars the you have...uhm...both left and right...in the areas that are next to your bladder, they seem to be exactly the same size and...like they were made with extreme precision... So...did you have-"

"A surgery?" Odysseus finishes her sentence and Annabelle reluctantly nods. "Yes, though it is one of the...not so happy moments of my past. I...don't want to talk about it, sorry."

"I understand. S-Sorry for asking," Annabelle answers back, lowering her head a little.

"Anyway, we have more pressing matters than the sad story of my life," Odysseus says. Standing up, she grabs both of Annabelle's shoulders and stares at her intently. Annabelle moves her face a little backwards, feeling a bit awkward at her friend's stare. "Food."

"Eh?" Annabelle says, getting surprised by the word Odysseus says.

"I need food," Odysseus says and her stomach grumbles quite loudly. Clutching on her stomach, Odysseus looks at Annabelle with puppy eyes. "Please?"

"Fine, fine, I'll cook today," Annabelle sighs, knowing that any means of resistance is futile against her friend when she is hungry.

"Yay!" Odysseus exclaims and starts bouncing like a little kid.

"But you are helping me," Annabelle adds and Odysseus stops moving altogether.

"Do I have to?" she whines, but Annabelle seems adamant about it.

"Either you help or you can cook yourself," she says and then notices Odysseus is still naked. "And for God's sake, cover yourself."

"You are one to talk," Odysseus grins and points at Annabelle, who is still naked. Annabelle quickly looks around for her towel, which is...in Odysseus' hands.

"Give it back Odysseus!" she quickly says, trying to grab it, but failing as Odysseus takes a step back.

"Nope," Odysseus says, waving a finger at her. Then an idea pops in her mind and a villainous grin forms on her face. "If you dress as a French maid and call me Master for a day, I'll give your towel back."

"When I get my hands on you, I'll make sure you experience your worst nightmares," Annabelle declares darkly, her eyes having a dangerous gleam.

"You'll have to catch me first!" Odysseus says and starts running all over the place.

"Come back here you perverted exhibitionist!" Annabelle screams and starts chasing her.

* * *

 **A/N: Hope you enjoy it! Since this is one of the few attempts in my story to make something funny, please review it. I want to know if I got it right. Thanks in advance have a great day/night!**


	28. Mini-Chapter 2: When the Horde Attacked

**A/N: Hello my loyal subjects...eeehh...*cough*, *cough*, I meant my precious readers, and welcome to another mini-chapter!...that is 6k words long, but who cares. As with the first mini-chapter, this one is funny too! Before I forget it, special thanks to SeekerMeeker for the details he added on it. Without further delays, let's start this hilarious trip!**

* * *

 **The Ether Conflict**

 **Mini-Chapter 2: When the Horde Attacked**

* * *

 **Blackout Main Base**  
 **Male Dorms**  
 **Room 49**

Inside one of the male dorm rooms in Blackout's main base, two boys lie on their beds, trying to pass their evening. One has short, brown hair with hazel eyes; he is currently reading a novel titled "The Sharpshooter." It is about a WW2-era veteran tank gunner, and his life after the war; specifically, it is about how he became a sharpshooter for his hometown's police department.  
The other boy has short, blond hair and blue eyes, currently typing something on his cell phone; he is texting a certain ginger-haired girl. Some of Blackout's bases had been outfitted with a communications antenna, which offered limited mobile coverage up to a certain distance away from the base in which it had been installed.

 _An escort mission? That's a first_ , the blond boy types in his cell phone and presses the "Send" button.  
 _Yeah, we were really surprised by it, but the payment is really good,_ he receives a text back moments later.

 _So, what's this job exactly,_ he types and a few minutes, he gets an answer.

 _I can't say a lot of details about it,_ the text reads. _But we are supposed to escort a convoy that transports a very precious cargo between two cities. To make matters worse, we don't even know what the cargo is! :(_

 _If the cargo is so precious they asked Blackout to escort it, it means the probability of getting ambushed is high,_ he writes, but before sending the text, he adds one more line:  
 _Please be careful Saori._

 _Don't worry Tyler, I'll be fine. We have Miho leading us, so I'm sure everything will work out just fine,_ he receives, before receiving another text _. Since when did you start worrying about me?_

 _What, can't I worry about my sweet angel from time to time? O:) ;)_

 _Stop it Tyler, you'll make me blush! :$_ he receives as an answer and Tyler smirks, already imagining Saori's embarrassed expression.

 _I think we are getting in the antenna's range, reception is pretty bad here,_ she texts back. _I'll text you when we are inside another antenna's coverage. Many kisses! :* :* :*_

 _Many kisses and be safe :* :* :*,_ he texts back, before putting his phone on the bed stand and lying on his bed, he looks at the ceiling.

"Having a relationship can be really worrisome sometimes," he murmurs just loud enough for Reiji to hear him.

"It can't be helped, since she is doing the same job as you," Reiji says, turning a page on his book. "How has your relationship been progressing?"

"That's an odd question from you," Tyler says, turning his head so he faces Reiji. "Why do you ask?"

"Mere curiosity you could say," Reiji answers back, his eyes never looking away from his book's contents.

"We have been doing fine," Tyler answers his friend. "Thanks to her, I don't get mobbed by girls every ten seconds when out of the male dorms," he says and Reiji chuckles a bit.

"Yeah, we can actually move around and even chat without getting interrupted by a girl who wants to ask you something," Reiji smirks.

"Amen to that," Tyler says, glad he doesn't have to be wary of his surroundings for any clingy girls anymore. "Though Odysseus just loves teasing me and getting me in trouble," he sighs, closing his eyes for a brief moment.

"How so?" Reiji asks, curiosity overwhelming him. He stops reading his book and turns to face Tyler. "Did she say something embarrassing in front of Saori?"

"Dude, she asked her if _SHE_ had sex with _ME_ yet," Tyler says with a serious expression and Reiji looks at him and raises both eyebrows in surprise, before bursting in laughter.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Reiji manages to say between his laughs, the sheer absurdity of the comment making it look like a joke. Tyler frowns, annoyed at his friend's reaction.

"I kid you not," Tyler responds back seriously. "Not only did Saori run away with a face as red as a tomato, but the girls who were passing by at that moment and overheard her, they shot death glares at me! I even saw one retrieving a pocket knife from her uniform!"

"Wow, even the yanderes are after you," Reiji jokes. "If only Annabelle was there with her."

"Oh, she was. The killing intent she released when she heard Odysseus, I don't think it is possible for a human to exert such amounts," Tyler says, shivering a bit at remembering that moment. "Even Odysseus froze in place, her face becoming as white as fresh snow and she was sweating a lot."

"What happened after that?" Reiji asks with amusement.

"Annabelle knocked out Odysseus with a punch in her face and dragged her back to their room like a sack of potatoes, probably to torture her," Tyler jokes.

"Think she made Odysseus wear any formal dresses?" Reiji says and both boys start laughing, knowing their commander was never fond of formal dresses, or dresses in general as a matter of fact. Suddenly, Tyler's phone starts ringing, and picking it up, he answers it.

"Hello?" he says.

 _"Hey Tyler, it's Annabelle,"_ the voice on the other end of the call says.

"Oh, hey Annabelle, how are you?" Tyler says.

 _"I am fine, thank you. I called because I wanted to ask a favor,"_ Annabelle says to Tyler.

"Is something wrong?" Tyler asks, sensing Annabelle's tone is different than usual.

 _"Odysseus is sick and I want you to bring me some medicine from the hospital,"_ Annabelle answers Tyler.

"Can't you go yourself?" Tyler asks. "The hospital is practically next to your dorms."

 _"I'd love to, but Odysseus won't let me go,"_ she says in an irritated voice.

 _"Please Annabelle, don't leave me alone!"_ Tyler can hear Odysseus' groggy voice in the background. _"I want you to stand by my side in my final moments!"_

Tyler rolls his eyes and sighs a little. "Odysseus being herself again," he says in a deadpan voice. "She just loves overexaggerating things, doesn't she?" he facepalms.

 _"Pretty much,"_ Annabelle sighs, massaging her temples with her left hand.

 _"Someone get me some paper and a pen! I need to write my last will, while I still have time!"_ Odysseus moans.

 _"This is getting ridiculous. Anyway, thanks a lot for the help," Annabelle thanks Tyler._

"No problem," Tyler answers and ends the call.

"What did Annabelle want?" Reiji asks Tyler with curiosity, having closed and put the book he was reading on his own bed stand.

"Odysseus seems to be sick, so she asked me to go and get some medicine from the hospital," Tyler answers back, while getting dressed on his uniform and putting on his boots. "Want to come along?"

"Sure," Reiji responds, starting to get dressed too. "Though, couldn't she go herself and get it? The female dorms are practically next to the hospital," he asks Tyler.

"Odysseus won't let her go," Tyler curtly responds. "You know how our commander can be sometimes."

"Unfortunately yes," Reiji sighs as he finishes dressing and Tyler grins a little at his remark. "But it's not always her good side we get to see." And with this, Tyler's grin evaporates from his face.

"You don't say," Tyler murmurs, remembering a very particular occurrence that happened about a week after joining Blackout. "Anyway, better get going, or Annabelle will chew us out."

"Agreed," Reiji nods and both boys exit their room, making their way towards the exit of the male dorms. Thankfully, their room is on the ground floor, so they don't have to watch for too long to find themselves in front of the main courtyard.

"What a lovely sight," Tyler says, looking at the beautiful sight of the cherry trees and the lawn, the small brick roads and the antique lamp posts that provide light at night.

"Except for the big hole that still hasn't been repaired," Reiji adds and Tyler looks at the blocked section of the courtyard, which still holds the scars of the "skirmish" between Miho, Odysseus and the unknown woman. Even the vertically cut tree remains in its place, as evidence of the terrifying power Ether users hold.

"This is ironic," Tyler says, as both boys make their way towards the hospital through the courtyard. "Blackout has enough power and personnel to take Japan in one fell swoop, yet they can't fix the damage that has happened here," Tyler shakes his head in disbelief. "What are they doing, trying to choose what color the bricks for the paths will have?"

* * *

 **At the same time**  
 **Director's office**

"Achoo!"

"Bless you, Director."

"Thank you, Teruo," the Director thanks the Coordinator. "Now then, should we use red bricks or blue bricks for the paths?"

"I think the blue ones would be better," the Coordinator suggests. "The blue color is known to calm down people which would be perfect for the courtyard."

"We could add another fountain too," Misako adds, adjusting her glasses a little. "Or even a small pond with Koi fish and ducks."

* * *

"I'm sure they have other, more important problems to deal with, that's why the courtyard hasn't been repaired yet," Reiji suggests.

"Maybe," Tyler says, when he spots a woman in the distance approaching him. "And here we go," he mutters with a blank expression.

"What do you mean?" Reiji asks him, before noticing the approaching woman. "Oh..."

The woman, which has long, dark brown hair and a pair of dark brown eyes, approaches the two boys and stops in front of them. She wears Blackout's standard uniform, which has a similar insignia to theirs, meaning she is a member of a tank crew. "Hello!" the girl greets cheerfully the two boys. "My name is Daigo Aki, I'm the leader of squad 75," she informs them. "Also known as "Hellhounds"."

"So you are an elite squad," Reiji says and Aki nods.

"Yep! We are one of the bigger squads in the Armor department," she boasts. "We are currently looking for a loader for the third tank our squad has, and we've heard a lot of good things about your skills!"

Looking at his right, Tyler looks at Reiji, who subtly nods, so Tyler puts his game face on and turns to look at the woman. "So you want me to transfer into your squad," he says with a serious expression and the girl nods.

"Yes. I already have the papers here," she says as she presents a bunch of papers she was holding behind her back. "You just need to sign them and we can handle the rest."

"What's in for me?" he professionally asks the woman.

"You will be receiving 10% cut of each mission's payment, be the loader of an XN-45/90 experimental MBT, have your own room, since we are an elite squad," she pauses a little and crosses her arms under her ample chest. "and have a little fun at nights if you want," she winks at him and Tyler discreetly rolls his eyes. "Much better than the squad you are currently in, right?" Now it's Reiji's time to roll his eyes at the woman's remark.

"I have to say, your offer is really tempting," he says with a smile and Aki smiles in anticipation. "But I'm afraid you will have to speak with my agent first," he says and points at Reiji.

"Eh?" is all the woman can say, having being caught off-guard by Tyler's statement. "Agent?"

"Hello, my name is Akaza Reiji," Reiji says and bows a little. "My client would love to accept this offer, but we need to make some slight adjustments," he says professionally.

"A-Adjustments?"

"Yes. First of all, we would like the 10% cut to be paid in Zimbabwe dollars or Antarctic ice cubes."

"What?" Aki blurts out with a confused expression.

"Secondly, we would like his room to be themed as a Hawaiian bungalow, complete with Tiki torches."

"W-Wait a minute, what's up with these adjustments?!" Aki asks incredulously, but Reiji continues like he heard nothing.

"Thirdly, we ask that my client receives a box of organically grown Magadascarian kiwis each week and that the experimental MBT is painted light pink," he says with a straight face, looking Aki directly in the eyes.

"This is a joke, right?" Aki asks with a dumbfounded expression.

"I would never joke while working, Miss Daigo," Reiji says and hands her a business card. "We'll give you some time to think about it. Have a nice day," Reiji bows a little before he and Tyler continue towards the hospital. Aki just stands there, not sure what happened all of a sudden. In fact, she is so taken-aback by the whole situation, she doesn't even notice that the card is blank.

After the boys have moved a certain distance away from Aki, they just burst in laughter, which earns some curious glances from the people around them.

"What the hell man?! Organically grown Magadascarian kiwis?!" Tyler's manages to say between his fits of laughter. "Where do you find these phrases?!"

"Don't forget the Hawaiian bungalow themed room," Reiji says while laughing.

"Yeah, it even has Tiki torches." Taking a few deep breaths to calm down, Tyler turns to face Reiji and asks him a question. "So...do you have a girlfriend yet?"

"Hm?" Reiji turns to face Tyler too. "Why the sudden interest in my love life?" he asks.

"Since you asked me about my relationship, is only proper as your best friend to ask you something similar," Tyler says with a smirk, and so Reiji smirks too.

"As my best friend, huh?" Reiji says and chuckles a little. "Well, I did ask you about your relationship with Saori, so it's only proper I answer yours too." Tyler draws a bit nearer to Reiji, so he won't have to speak too loudly and potentially be overheard by someone. "I am not in a relationship with any girl, sorry," he says to Tyler, who turns to look at him with a neutral expression.

"I figured as much," Tyler responds with a grin. "Or else our dear commander would have already informed us, like she did with me and Saori," he says with a modest amount of irritation, still remembering Odysseus' constant teasing. "So then, let me change my question. Is there any girl you are interested in?" Tyler asks and leans closer to Reiji.

"Actually there is," Reiji answers his friend's question.

"I honestly expected you to try and avoid answering me," Tyler admits, expecting his friend to try and sidetrack him, so as not to answer his question.

"But then you wouldn't be surprised like this," Reiji chuckles a little.

"Fair enough," Tyler says. "So, who's the beauty that has mesmerized you with her brilliant looks?"

"Hana," Reiji answers bluntly and Tyler cranes his head slowly to look at his friend.

"Hana..." Tyler repeats and raises both of his eyebrows to show his surprise.

"Why, think we don't match?" Reiji asks Tyler.

"No, you are a pretty good match, if I say so," Tyler says, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Actually, you are a perfect match for each other, now that I think about it." Noticing they have made it to their destination, Tyler stops in front of the hospital's entrance. "Here we are. You think we will be fine?" he asks Reiji.

"I think we will be OK," Reiji says with confidence. "The real challenge will be getting inside the female dorms without getting noticed by the girls."

"I guess you are right," Tyler sighs deeply. "Let's grab the medicine and get out as fast as we can. With how things normally are, I expect most of the nurses to start chasing me around."

"Then why don't you wait here, while I go and get the medicine?" Reiji suggests.

"You sure about that?" Tyler asks.

"Yes. It's going to be a lot faster too, if we don't have the nurses chasing you," Reiji smirks at Tyler.

"Fair point," Tyler says and goes to stand in the wall next to the hospital's entrance. "I'll wait for you here. Just don't be late." Reiji nods and enter the hospital, in search of medicine for his sick commander.

Minutes pass and Tyler remains next to the entrance, waiting for Reiji to return. Although he seems relaxed, his senses are on overdrive, making sure no one is about to surprise him. _Come on Reiji, where are you?_ Tyler thinks as he sees some girls giving him some looks while they enter or leave the hospital, which most of the times means he is about to get surrounded by girls.

"Hey, I got the medicine," Tyler hears Reiji's voice saying and looking next to him, he finds Reiji with a paper bag.

"Great, let's get going," Tyler says quickly and the boys start walking towards the female dorms, which is next to the hospital. Entering the space between the 2 buildings, the boys find themselves in a narrow space. Walking further in, they stop in front of a metallic door that is painted green.

"Thank God for the dormitory's service entrance," Tyler exclaims. "Thank to this door, we can sneak in and out of the dorms without being seen by the girls." Tyler takes a moment to marvel at this rusty and slightly dented door. "This door needs to be awarded the Medal of Honor for his exemplary service at making our lives easier."

"Done admiring Sgt. Metal Door?" Reiji jokes and Tyler frowns at him. "Anyway, the sooner we get in and deliver the medicine, the sooner we leave this deathzone with your body intact," Reiji says and proceeds to open the door. "Hm?"

"What's the problem?" Tyler asks with concern, seeing Reiji's serious expression.

"The door...won't...budge," Reiji says between his grunting, trying to force the door open with a shoulder bash.

"Well...shit," Tyler swears, throwing his hands in the air for a moment. "What the hell will we do now, run all the way to their room?"

"You do remember how it turned out when we tried it, don't you?" Reiji says and Tyler shivers involuntarily.

"Please don't remind me," he says with a quivering voice, before noticing Reiji retrieving something from a cardboard box next to the door. "What are you doing?" he asks with curiosity.

"I thought that something like that might happen, so I had prepared a contingency plan," he answers, and then presents Tyler a wig. "If you have long, blonde hair, everyone will think you are a girl, so they should leave us alone."

"You are kidding, right?" Tyler asks with an incredulous look, and when he sees Reiji's serious expression, he just sighs in defeat. "I guess it is better than running till the third floor." Reluctanttly taking the wig, he puts it on, and after a few fixes, he turns to Reiji. "How do I look?"

"Oh my, don't look me in the eyes," Reiji jokes, covering his eyes with his right arm. "Too much moe, I think I'll vomit rainbows."

"Haha, very funny," Tyler says with a grumpy look. "Let's get over with this thing, so I can burn this wig in a bonfire." And so, the two boys exit from the narrow space between the two buildings and proceed towards the entrance of the female dorms. As they walk, the girls look at them, some for mere moments, other for more and one or two girls gaze intently at Tyler.

"You think our cover has been blown?" Tyler whispers at Reiji's left ear, noticing the intense stares he is receiving.

"No, or you'd have been surrounded by girls," Reiji whispers back. "Just keep walking and if anyone asks you anything, let me do the answering."

Reaching the entrance, both boys enter and find themselves in the main hallway of the dorms. "Great, no one suspects a thing," Tyler whispers, seeing they have safely made it beyond the entrance. "Now to make it all the way to the third floor," he adds with a hopeful voice.

...but the universe has other plans for him and Reiji.

"Hey, you!" he hears a voice calling out to him and he instantly freezes in place. "I'm talking to you blondie!"

 _Shiiiit! We are so screwed!_ he yells mentally, turning slowly to face the one who spoke to him.  
"You seem to be new here," a girl around 17 years old with short, green-dyed hair and black eyes, says, approaching Tyler and Reiji. "My name's Asuka, nice to meet you," she says and raises her hand for a handshake. Tyler automatically takes her hand and shakes it, realizing his mistake too late.

 _Wh-What is that feeling...that I feel in my chest?_ Asuka wonders, feeling her heart start beating faster, her cheeks slightly blushing. Looking the new girl in the eyes, she feels slightly embarrassed for some reason, so she quickly adverts her gaze. "S-So, your n-name is?" she rather cutely stutters.

 _Crap, if I utter a single word we are all gonna die!_ Tyler exaggerates mentally, feeling sweat forming on his forehead.

"Her name is Asuna," Reiji comes to the rescue, salvaging this very delicate situation. "She lost her voice after a rather traumatic experience with some bandits," he says with a sad expression and catching up on his plan, Tyler plays along, adopting a really sad expression and even faking a few tears. "Since she can't talk anymore, she tends to get really sad when people ask her questions," Reiji says and pulls "Asuna" closer to him. "If you'll excuse us." As the boys turn around to continue further in the hallway, Asuka suddenly takes a step forward and raises her right hand to stop Tyler, though she trips on her own foot and falls down. As she is falling, she instinctively grabs Tyler's wig, pulling it off of Tyler's head.

"Ouch!" the girl groans, as she slowly rises from the ground. "I'm really sorry for-" Asuka starts saying, when she notices that Asuna suddenly has short, blond hair. Looking at her right hand, she notices that she holds a wig that is long, blonde hair. The boys freeze in place, looking back at the girl and what she is holding. Asuka merely looks at them with a surprised expression. An eerie silence ensues, as the boys slowly turn to look at each other. By now, every girl at a distance of at least 20 meters stares at the boys, more specifically at Tyler.

"Well...Reiji...it was an honor serving with you," Tyler says with the most serious expression he has ever made. A few girls start to lean forward, ready to sprint.

"Likewise, my dear friend," Reiji says and both boys exchange a firm handshake, as a few girls start to sneak on Tyler. "I'll see you in Valhalla." They nod to each other, then run as hard as they can.

"Get Tyler!" numerous girls scream at the top of their lungs, and they all go on a mad stampede, desperate to grab Tyler like he is the last man on Earth.

"Asuna-boy!" Asuka screams like a fan girl, flailing the wig like a flag. "Let me PUT this on you again!"

"Where is their room again?" Reiji groans, as he blocks three hands that reach for his friend.

"I know the way!" Tyler shouts, as he dodges a few scary hands, reaching out to grab him like ambush predators.

"Tyler~" the many voices of girls echo in the hallway, as the two boys run back and forth, and Tyler feels a chilling sensation through his whole spine. They try one staircase, only to see five girls. All five squeal, and run after Tyler. They manage to escape by ascending the next flight of stairs, and find an empty hall.

...or so they think.

"Where are you~" the voices say in a creepy manner, promising really bad things for Tyler. The boys run away, and open a door to hide in, only to find themselves in a room of 15 girls, in various stages of undressing. They slam the doors shut, and look above the door. "Why do the female dorms have the showers on the first floor?" Tyler asks Reiji, as they can hear movement behind the wooden doors.

"Beats me," Reiji shrugs and both boys start running yet again, only to get chased by all 15 girls, who are screaming in joy. Now, the hallway is no longer quiet.

"Any idea where to go?!" Tyler screams.

"Here!" Reiji opens another door.

"ABORT, ABORT!" Tyler screams in terror, dragging his friend as 20 more girls stream out of a gameroom, a poster that says _"TYLER'S GENUINE FAN CLUB MEETING TODAY!"_ taped in one of the walls. Now, they are being chased like a lone deer fleeing from a pack of at least 45 wolves, hungry to "bite" him.

"Get him!" girls scream and squeal at the same time, their eyes gleaming dangerously. Most of the girls, however, who chase him are about Tyler's age, but hordes of them smash through doors and run down the hallways, as if they are chasing after a celebrity. A few smarter ones try to form a quick plan to trap the two, especially Tyler.

"You go the other way!" the "leader" of one group shouts. "We'll go the other, and trap him like a mouse!"

"Try and catch his friend, maybe we can force him to surrender himself!" another girl orders.

A number of older women come out, annoyed at the sudden spike in noise level.  
"What is going on?" one of them screams. "And-oh..."  
Her tone dramatically changes from one of annoyance, to one of mild amusement.  
"Well-well," she says to her group, who all line out to watch. "Tyler made a foolish choice to come here."

"Yeah," says another woman, taking out some cash. "I am betting 10000¥ that the girls will catch him this time."

"I bet the opposite," another one says.

"No, no, you got it wrong," another joins in, taking her own cash out. "Let's bet how LONG it will take before he gets captured," she grins.

"I hope the gods have mercy on my soul!" Tyler says and when he looks back at the number of his pursuers, his face becomes snow white. Now, there are over 60 girls chasing their "love". "The gods have abandoned me!" he screams, as he passes between more girls, running for his life. As the boys run towards the stairs that lead to the second floor, Tyler retrieves his phone and calls at Annabelle's room.

"Come on, come on, pick it up," he says as he hears the phone ringing, before it finally connects. "At last!" he tries to sigh, ducking to avoid five more girls clawing at him.

 _"Hello?"_ Annabelle asks, oblivious to the situation from the other side.

"Hello Annabelle!" he screams into the phone. "Open the door now! We're being chased!" He terminates the call before Annabelle can reply.

* * *

Annabelle stares at the phone, and sighs.

"Oh boy," she groans, getting up to open the door.

"Please," groans Odysseus, clinging onto her, a few tears escaping her eyes. "Don't leave me alone."

"I am not leaving," says Annabelle. "Just making sure the boys will get to live one more day," she sighs, as she delicately removes Odysseus' hands from her and walks towards the door.

* * *

"Mayday!" one the guards tries to call into his walkie-talkie. "We need-uf!"

A horde of girls slams through, trampling over him. He lies on the ground, writhing in awkward pain.  
"Ouch," says an older woman, dusting him like a chair, while not helping him up. "Welcome to the world of girls."

"Is that...why the boys in the office had...such gloomy faces when I told them today's shift was here?" the man groans to himself, still lying on the floor.

Meanwhile, the boys are nearing the staircase to the second floor, but the Mongolian horde of pretty girls that chases them starts gaining ground, and the comments they make don't help the boys relax at all.

"Tyler, why are you running? We only want to ask you a few things~"

"Please don't be afraid of us, we only want to _**"axe"**_ you a few questions!"

"Please go out with me, I'll even make you have an unforgettable night!"

"Why are they so desperate?!" Tyler asks incredulously, as the boys climb the stairs to the second floor.

"Maybe it has to do with you, Prince Charming," Reiji grins and Tyler frowns. "Or do you prefer Princess better?"

"Shut up, we are a breath away from certain doom, and you keep joking?!" Tyler shouts at his friend, as he slides between the legs of a girl that tries to block his way. "Jesus Christ, wear some underwear, you pervert!" he yells at the girl, who wears the standard uniform of Blackout, albeit with a short skirt and not the pants it comes with normally.

"Good thing Saori isn't here," Reiji says at Tyler, as both boys round a corner. "Over here!" Reiji says quickly, opening a door and diving inside. As Tyler enters too, Reiji closes the door.

"If Saori...was here...none of this would have happened," Tyler pants, trying to catch his breath. Both boys place their ears against the door, but they don't hear anything.

"Something's wrong, I don't hear any sound," Reiji says slowly, focusing as much as he can, in order to hear even the slightest of noises.

 _ **"Found you, my lovey-dovey smooch-smooch,"** _ a voice creepily whispers behind Tyler, its breath gently caressing Tyler's neck, and Tyler just adopts an expression like the one in Edvard Munch's painting "The Scream", accompanied of course by a high pitch screaming that alerts every girl on the floor of their position. Reiji grabs Tyler by his right forearm and drags him out of the room, both of them barely avoiding the gloved hands of their assailant.

"Now you have stalkers chasing you?!" Reiji asks incredulously, seeing the fully-clothed individual that silently pursues them, followed by the horde of thirsty girls.

"Cut me some slack, I didn't expect the assassins would be after me!" Tyler defends himself. As the boys near the staircase that leads to the third floor, a group of five girls descends them, physically blocking the way. "We have been boxed! This is our end!" he screams in desperation.

"This is it girls, we have finally cornered him!" the girl leading the horde shouts in joy and all the girls cheer enthusiastically, as the horde starts picking speed, and all Tyler can see are extended hands trying to grab him.

"This is it, I'm going to hell!" he screams.

"Tyler, grab!" Reiji shouts at him and throws him the paper bag with the medicine.

Noticing his friend's look, Tyler feels his heart sinking on his stomach. "Reiji, you don't mean..."

"I'll see you on the other side!" Reiji grins and starts running faster. Setting his sight upon two of the five girls that block the staircase, he resolves himself at sacrificing himself for his friend.

"Ignore the boy in front of us, focus on Tyler!" the leader of the group that blocks the stairs says, which proves to be a fatal mistake for them. Reiji seizes this moment of weakness and tackles two of the girls on the ground, creating a gap wide enough for Tyler to squeeze through and start climbing the stairs.

"Keep going Tyler!" Reiji shouts, as the horde draws closer. He tries to stand up, but the girls he tackled on the ground keep him pinned down using their own bodies.

"You are going to hell, along with us!" one of the girls laughs in a sinister manner.

"Complete the mission! Nothing else matters!" are the last words Tyler hears his best friend utter, before the horde completely consumes him.

"Don't worry, my friend. I'll never forget your sacrifice," Tyler whispers, shedding a few tears of sorrow for his friend's loss. Reaching the third floor, Tyler spots Annabelle at the middle of the hallway, waving at him. _Just a little more!_ he thinks, before the creepy voices of death and painful agony start uttering their soul-crushing phrases.

"Come on Tyler, don't run away~"

"We only want to have fun!"

"Come to my private party! It will be really fun~"

"Have my babies, Tyler!"

"What the fuck was that last comment?!" he screeches, as the horde draws closer to him. Tyler looks back and his eyes almost pop out in terror, as he sees a girl leaping at him, a crazy look at her face. She almost catches him, when a blue barrier blocks the whole hallway, effectively blocking the girls from reaching Tyler.

"What the fuck do you want, bitches?!" a groggy voice shouts, and Tyler spots a sick Odysseus slowly walking towards the barrier, her expression promising pain and agony to anyone that dares to speak.

"It's the witch, run!" one of the girls screams and the horde of girls retreat to the lower floors, as Odysseus materializes her scythe to make herself seem even scarier.

"We will get you one day, Tyler," one of the girls says ominously, before releasing a villainous laugh and retreating with the rest. Tyler can feel multiple shivers through his spine, this last message shaking his soul.

"Odysseus, go immediately back to bed, you need to rest!" Annabelle orders Odysseus, before noticing that Reiji is missing. "Hey, Tyler...where is Reiji?"

"He...didn't make it," Tyler says, looking at the ground. "He sacrificed himself so I could make it here in one piece."

"And it worked so splendidly."

"Reiji, you are alive!" Tyler spins around and says with joyful tears, as he sees Reiji walking towards him. "I thought I'd never see you again! That reminds me," he says, spinning around and handing Odysseus the bag with her medicine. "This is yours."

"Thanks a lot Tyl-Achoo!" Odysseus sneezes suddenly, dousing Tyler's face in...things better left unknown.

"Odysseus, back to bed, now!" Annabelle scolds Odysseus like a mother, pointing at their room. "Or I'll leave you alone!"

"Please Annabelle, anything but that!" Odysseus pleads, bolting straight for her bed.

Tyler just stands there, a blank expression on his face. "Well, shit. We put ourselves in danger and what do I get as a reward? A sneeze in the face...great..."

"You know, you could have just sent Reiji, instead of coming too," Annabelle says, and the boys look at each other.

"So...in the end, my sacrifice meant nothing?" Reiji says with a lifeless voice, looking at the ground with an unfocused gaze.

"All these scarring things I had to hear and see..." Tyler trails off, he too looking lifelessly on the floor.

"Guys, are you OK?" Annabelle asks with a concerned voice, and becomes more concerned when she sees the empty smiles and eyes the boys have.

"Yes, it is nothing to worry about," Reiji says.

"Just...we just need some time to reevaluate our lives up to this point...that's all," Tyler says.

Before Annabelle can say anything, both boys turn around and start walking towards the exit. "Well, whatever," Annabelle shrugs, before returning to her room to look after Odysseus, who has started exaggerating once more.

The next day Tyler was sick and remained to his room. Thankfully, Saori had returned from her mission, so she looked after him, till he got better. She also prevented his room from becoming a botanical garden from the flowers the girls from the female dorm would probably bring to him.

* * *

 **A/N: Here you have it! Next time you see the story updated, it will be a revised Chapter 8. Also, who won the bet? Anyway, if you liked the chapter, like and subscribe...wrong platform. Let me try again. *Coughs a little* Anyway, if you liked the chapter, favorite and follow and leave a review, if you have any comment to make. Have a nice day/night and stay safe!**


	29. Chapter 29: Operational Status: Green

**The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 29: Operational Status: Green**

* * *

 **One month after the Battle of Tokyo**

 **28th of June, 2 Y.A.**

 **A few kilometers away from Blackout's Main Base**

 **Ether Force's Main Base**

 **Training Grounds**

 _*Boom*_

 _*Crash*_

 _*Clang*_

"Hey, Moe?"

 _*Ding, Ding, Boom*_

 _*Shing*_

"Yes Ryuu?"

 _*Thump, Clang, Fwoosh*_

One month has passed since the battle of Tokyo ended, where forces from Blackout clashed against the forces of the Institute in the remains of the city of Tokyo in a decisive battle that would judge who would control the lands of the former country of the rising sun. The battle was long and bloody, but in the end, Blackout was victorious, in part thanks to the acquisition of the Odin weapons platform. With the successful defeat of the Institute, Blackout has now become the most powerful military force in all of Japan, since the JSDF was obliterated by the Institute.

As the Director had promised to Miho, an independent branch of Blackout was found, named Ether Force. The base took only a month to be built, thanks to Mannheim's ability to create things by manipulating Ether. The main base was actually a three story building that had rooms for the personnel of the base, a mess hall, an office for the Directors of this new branch and a research lab. Also, the grounds behind the tall building had been designated as training grounds for all combat personnel, with a rather well-made shooting range and a section of the land a few hundred meters away from it marked as training grounds for people who could use Ether. Right now, three people are using the training grounds, sparring with each other while a dozen more watch them.

"Can you remind me why we are here?" Ryuu asks as he calmly observes a fight that could have literally been pulled out of a fantasy novel, with fire and ice being flown everywhere.

"Sure I can. It's because when we captured the enemy's HQ, your stupid curiosity got the better of you and you thought that looking at classified files and records was a great idea," Moe grumbles without looking at Ryuu, who is standing next to her, giving as much attention as she can to the fight that unfolds a few meters away from them.

"Hey, how could I have known that Blackout would have participated in something as shady as the Starfall project?"

"Yeah, and you are lucky they only transfered us in this new branch and didn't put a bullet in our heads, so shut the fuck up and let me enjoy the battle."

"Some times, I really wonder why I married you..." Ryuu quietly sighs, giving his wife a brief glance, before turning his attention to the fight.

"Who knows~" she says with a flirtatious smile, turning to look at him. "Maybe you can find out when our shift ends~."

"And then I wonder why I can't get mad at you," he shakes his head slowly with a grin plastered over his face. "So, who do you think will win?" he asks Moe, who is still looking at him.

"Hmm," she makes a pondering expression as she turns back to looking at the fight. "I'll say the girl with the long black hair and icy blue eyes. Her skills are really good and her power is really interesting; she can create a bow and arrows made of ice out of thin air."

"Really?" Ryuu says in a surprised voice. "I thought you would bet on the girl with the brown hair and fiery red eyes. I mean, just look at her power! She can create hand axes made of fire and throw them everywhere! Not to mention the other abilities she can use."

While Ryuu and Moe observe the fight between the girls and a black wolf with red eyes from one side of the marked area, Miho, her team and even the Rabbit team are observing it from the other side, with the girls going "Ah" and "Woah" at the spectacular explosions of fire and ice, except for Miho who is reading some documents about the new girls and their powers.

The first girl is named Kōrino Yumika, only one year younger than her, but almost as tall as Hana. Really long, black hair that reach all the way down on the back of her knees and are tied in a ponytail, her eyes an icy blue that could freeze even the sun, but from the time she has spent talking and getting to know her, she is a rather warm and kind person, albeit a little timid at times. Her power consists of ice manipulation and from what she can see right now, she uses it to make a bow and arrows out of ice, not to mention the use of enchanted arrows that Miho have taught her.

The other girl is named Kasai Ono, same age as Kōrino and probably best friends, since they are always together. A centimeter or two shorter than Mako, she has short brown hair that are longer in the left side and fiery red eyes that will completely incinerate anything that dares to stand in her way. As for personality goes, she is the complete opposite of Kōrino. Short-tempered and confrontational, but surprisingly calm under stressful situations.

Everything seems to be normal with them, as normal as the sight of girls using what is essentially magic can be, though there are a few things that have piqued her interest in the documents.

First of all, the Serums used on the girls. The documents classify them as second generation Serums, meaning that the girls were injected with a different kind of liquid than the one that was used on her, or at the very least, a liquid that is based on her own. Physical alterations are somewhat the same with her own; although only the color of the eyes has changed in the girls, the documents state that this change is permanent. There is also a line that says "P.B.A.P: None" which Miho is really curious about, so she makes a mental note to ask Mannheim about it and the second generation Serums the next time she sees him.

Glancing at the sparring girls, she observes that their fighting has improved quite a lot since the first time they started training. At first they were barely able to fight Kuro, usually losing in the first five minutes of the fight. They were schoolgirls after all; you can't expect them to fight like seasoned warriors from a fantasy world, and while a month of training has done a lot to improve them, they still have ways to go.

Since Ether is really just a type of energy that can do almost anything you wish for it to do, given enough time and practice, the only thing that could limit one's power is their own imagination. Even Miho has created a few new tricks within this month of reprieve they had.

"Woah! Commander, look at that!" Miho hears Karina yelling excitedly, although she can already see the massive 20-meter tall vortex of fire raging at the center of the training grounds, the heat being enough for even her to feel it slightly, despite being at least two hundred meters away from its center, maybe even more.

 _Now that's new,_ she thinks as she slowly scans the vortex, analyzing its structure. _Seems like the girls have been training on their own too._

"That should be game over for her!" Kasai grins as she has finally managed to hit Kuro with a powerful attack. Wielding her two fiery hand axes, she starts twirling them as she waits for the vortex of flames to die down.

"You shouldn't let your guard down," Kōrino advises her friend, still holding her ice bow with an arrow in it ready to be fired, though it is pointed towards the ground.

"Come on, you can't expect for Kuro to survive from something like that," she says and turns to look up at Kōrino, since she is a lot shorter than her.

"Woof!"

"See? Even she agrees with me!" Kasai smugly replies to Kōnori, before she realizes that something's not right. "Wait a minute..." she trails off and both girls turn to look behind them, only to find the female wolf sitting on its hind legs, gazing at them silently.

"If she is here, then that means..." Kōrino trails off and looks at the dissipating pillar of fire to confirm her suspicion, and indeed as she suspected, there is nothing but charred ground at where the pillar once stood.

"Woof!" Kuro barks once more, her tail waggling from side to side. The girls immediately attack, Kasai throwing a hand axe and Kōrino launching an arrow, but the wolf merely disappears from view in a cloud of black smoke which quickly dissipates, causing both the hand axe and arrow to strike the ground.

"Where did she go!?" Kasai yells as she looks all around her for a sign of the black wolf, with Kōrino doing the exact same thing, keeping her guard up and her bow ready to fire another arrow. It's not the first time they she Kuro pull this trick, though they still can't get used to it.

Kuro materializes behind Kōrino at the level of her head and grabs her by the base of her long ponytail. Using her weight, she drags Kōrino with her to the ground, which causes the girl to yelp in surprise and release her grip on her bow and arrow on reflex, which clatter on the ground but despite being made of ice refuse to melt.

Hearing Kōrino's yelp, Kasai spins around and throws one of her hand axes with inhuman speed, but Kuro vanishes again, this time appearing in front of Kasai and headbutting her. Although Kasai only flinches in response to the hit, she does let of her weapons and clasps her hands over her forehead.

The wolf howls in response and three balls of ruby red energy appear over her, before getting launched at Kasai at point blank range.

"Oh come on, you can use Ether too!?" she shouts in disbelief as she ducks and rolls on her left on instinct and successfully avoids the balls of energy, summoning another pair of hand axes on her hands. By now, Kōrino has recovered and starts dumping high-speed arrows at Kuro's direction, who chooses to disappear once more and try to knock out Kōrino.

As Miho observes the close fight between the girls and her...pet? Familiar? Servant? Even Miho isn't sure what Kuro is, but as she keeps watching them, she feels a rather familiar signature slowly approaching her from behind and soon enough, Mannheim stops besides her, watching the fight too.

"I assume you are here for a reason, Mannheim," Miho says in a neutral tone, not turning to look at the scientist. Upon hearing the name, both the Rabbit team and her friends turn to look at her and Mannheim with worried expressions.

"Quite perceptive, Subject 23," he says with a smirk on his face. "Though I believe you have questions of your own to ask me, don't you?" he asks as he glances at the documents Miho is holding.

"What's the difference between my Serum and the second generation ones? And what does the "P.B.A.P: None" line means in the documents," Miho asks and waves the documents a little for added emphasis, but then adds one more thing.

"And is there any specific reason why you call me "Subject 23"?"

"Hmm?" Mannheim turns and gives her a confused expression for a second, before realizing why she is asking something like this. "Ah, I'm really sorry Miss Nishizumi, it's just force of habit. As for the rest, we can talk at the R&D labs; I believe you hadn't had any time to check them yet and I also need to show you something."

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt checking them out," she says then turns at Kasai and Kōrino. "Girls, that's enough training for now! You can go take a bath if you want, but if you feel like practicing more your powers, make sure to rest up a little first!" she shouts at them.

Both Kōrino and Kasai plop to the ground immediately, panting hard and dripping sweat from everywhere. Kuro teleports next to Miho and sits on the ground next to her, growling a little at Mannheim.

"It's OK, Kuro, he won't do anything bad," Miho says to the wolf, slightly patting her head.

 _"But Master, how can you trust him so easily? How do you know he isn't planning anything?"_ Kuro's voice echoes in Miho's mind. Thanks to her power increasing, Kuro and Miho are now able to speak to each other telepathically, without the need for Miho to be on her mindscape.

"Sometimes, you just have to place your trust in certain people and hope for the best. Plus, we made a deal, so I believe he will honor it," Miho says somewhat slowly, not fully trusting Mannheim to be their ally, even after beating him at his own game.

"I'll have you know that I always honor the end of my agreements, Miss Nishizumi," Mannheim says in a slightly miffed voice. "You can ask Miss Kadotani for that."

"That reminds me, did Anzu come to speak with you? She told me she wanted to ask you about her sister."

"Ah yes, she did come and-"

"Hey girls!" Odysseus' loud voice echoes from behind Miho and Mannheim, and both turn to see the blonde commander quickly approaching them, with Annabelle, Reiji and Tyler a few steps behind her.

"Did you finish exploring the base?" Miho asks Odysseus, as both Reiji and Tyler greet her, then go to greet the rest of the girls.

"Yep! It is a lot smaller than what I expected, though really large for the current number of people the base has," Odysseus says, then notices Kasai and Kōrino, who are still training with their powers. "Are the girls training?"

"They were fighting against Kuro for the past half hour," Miho points at Kuro, who has gone to play with the girls of Rabbit team. Right now, Saki is patting her head, though she barely notices Kuro is licking her left cheek, looking at the horizon to either a butterfly or thinking about things the brain of a normal human being cannot comprehend.

"Oh...Did they win?"

"It was a draw."

"I see," Odysseus responds, then develops an expression full of excitement.

"Hey, how about a duel between you and me?" she asks Miho excitedly.

"Huh? Why?" Miho asks Odysseus, completely baffled as to why she would ask something like that out of the blue.

"Well, I was having a conversation with Annabelle and the boys about our powers and how really deadly they can be on the battlefield, then it somehow shifted to which of us is more powerful and we ended up arguing about it, so I made a bet with Annabelle!"

"A bet?"

"Yes," Annabelle nods in response. "If Odysseus manages to win in a duel against you, I'll do whatever she wants for a day and vice-versa if she loses. I made the bet just for fun; didn't think she would actually go straight to you and ask you for a fight."

"Once again, I have completely surpassed your expectations!" Odysseus says with a smug face, puffing her chest proudly at Annabelle.

"Of course you have, cause I never expected for an idiot like you to survive the apocalypse," Annabelle deadpans and causes Odysseus to deflate like a balloon.

"Fuck you," Odysseus grumbles and turns away from the redhead.

"I love you too."

"But this is an excellent chance to gauge how powerful both of you are," Mannheim comments. "Especially after that power up you two got."

"This is too risky," Miho immediately tells him. "If you want to measure our power, you'll most likely want for us to go all out and if we do that we'll most likely destroy the whole area."

"I can always put a barrier around the training grounds to keep damage to a minimum."

"Then we can fight, right!?" Odysseus says in excitement once more.

"Aren't you a little too happy?" Annabelle asks Odysseus with a concerned expression.

"Why are you saying that, Annabelle?" Odysseus grins a little at her, a maddening glimpse filling her eyes.

"I wonder why, Odysseus. It's not like you are slowly descending into madness because of the prospect of fighting without holding back."

"Oh, you'll make me blush with such compliments!"

"I still don't think it is a good idea. What if one of us gets injured really bad?" Miho says in concern, still apprehensive about the idea of fighting Odysseus.

"Oh come on, don't be a party pooper like Annabelle," Odysseus whines a little, then grabs Miho by her left wrist and drags her to the training grounds. "Hey, girls, get out of the marked area! Me and Miho are going to spar!" she yells at Kōrino and Kasai, who look at them with surprised expressions but do move out of the marked area. Naturally, this attracts the attention of everyone that had been watching the previous spar, and they all look at Miho and Odysseus who make their way slowly at the center of the marked area. A barrier made of apple green energy gets erected around the training grounds, shining brightly once before becoming invisible.

"Miporin, what's going on?" Saori asks in alarm as she sees her stopping at the center of the marked area, Odysseus being about twenty meters away from her.

"They are going to fight," Reiji says casually.

"I bet twenty bucks that Miho is gonna wipe the floor with Odysseus," Tyler bets against his commander and Reiji smirks at him.

"Total?" he asks Tyler.

"Twenty thousand yen."

"Twenty thousand yen!?" Saori almost yells at Tyler. "Tyler, you shouldn't gamble your money! This could become a really bad habit, you know!" she reprimands her boyfriend, but Tyler just awaits for Reiji's response.

"Forty thousand and that she is going to defeat Odysseus at the first fifteen minutes," Reiji responds and raises his hand for a handshake.

"You too, Reiji!?" Saori gawks at him in disbelief.

"Deal," Tyler takes his hand and shakes it firmly.

"Hey, don't leave me out of this!" Annabelle shouts, popping out of nowhere next to Reiji. "How much is the bet?"

"Forty k," Reiji says and Annabelle immediately retrieves forty thousand yen from her pocket.

"I'm saying that Odysseus is going to win this one."

"Not you too..." Saori groans and shakes her head a little.

"What lively people, wouldn't you agree?" Hana says to Yukari with a smile while looking at Odysseus' teammates.

"I don't think betting money is something good though," Yukari answers back slowly.

"But they seem to have a good time, don't they?" Hana smiles at Yukari, noting how the members of the Antelope team are all laughing, probably at the expense of Odysseus.

"Maybe we should bet too. Then we can buy a lot of cakes and sweets with the extra money," Mako says with a serious expression, the prospect of one hundred and twenty thousand yen worth of cake being really tempting. In fact, it is so tempting that Mako starts drooling from the corners of her mouth, which she subconsciously wipes with her uniform's right sleeve.

Meanwhile the Rabbit team looks with interest at both Miho and Odysseus, who seem to be putting a few rules in place for their sparring match.

"The match will have a duration of thirty minutes and within this time limit we have to either knock our opponent out or force her to surrender. We are not allowed to exit the marked area or use our powers outside of it. And if one or both of us gets severely injured the match will be stopped," Miho lays down some rules so that things won't get out of hand, as unlikely as it might be. "and no lethal hits."

"I'm fine with the rules," Odysseus nods in response. "Should we only use our first forms or immediately use the second ones?"

"Since we are testing the limits of our powers, we should use our second forms; I just hope Mannheim's barrier will be able to withstand our hits," Miho says, then starts covering her whole body in ruby red energy.

"Nice!" Odysseus pumps her fist in the air for a moment, before lowering it besides her. Light blue energy starts covering her body slowly and she smirks at Miho.

"I hope you are ready to face a madman, Miho!" she grins at the brunette commander, making a gun with her hand and pointing her middle and index fingers at the right side of her head. "Cause this girl has gone off her rocker!" she laughs loudly as both of them start changing into their second forms. Odysseus' hands and chest start shining brightly, before elbow-length white metallic gauntlets cover her arms and a white metallic breastplate appears over her uniform, covering perfectly her chest. Her left and right eye change color to bright blue and bright magenta respectively, and her pupils become slit like a cat's. Her hair on the left side of her head change color to snowy white and a pair of blue energy wings form in her back, being at least two meters long.

Miho's transformation is somewhat similar as her arms get covered in elbow-length black metallic gauntlets and her chest in a black metallic breastplate. Her hair gradually change color from brown to black and blinking once her eyes change color to red, with her pupils becoming slit. A pair of wings made from some kind of a ruby red crystal form behind her back, floating a few centimeters away from her shoulder blades. Her expression slowly changes to a severe one, her eyes a tad cold and apathetic. Two daggers appear in her hands, but instead of their normal red energy construct, they are solid and made of a black metal. Several black spears start forming around her, ready to be launched at their master's will.

Odysseus just laughs, an expression of pure insanity covering her face. Materializing her scythe and twirling it a few times, she points it at Miho. "Are you ready to dance, little lamb?" she snickers loudly as her wings start splitting into individual tendrils, numbering eight in total.

"Bring it on," Miho declares, twirling her daggers and holding them in a reverse grip.

"Last chance to raise the bet, boy and girls!" Tyler says with a grin, seeing that a clash of epic proportions is about to happen.

"Raise it to fifty k!" Annabelle immediately says and fishes out yet another bill of ten thousand yen.

"Fine by me," Reiji says casually.

"Tyler, why are you betting even more money!?" Saori berates him, pinching his right cheek slightly. "Do you even have that much money? What if you need them later? And gambling is bad, you shouldn't do that-"

"Think of it this way, Saori," Tyler quickly says and puts a finger over her lips to stop her from talking. "If I do win the bet, I'll have enough extra money to buy you a piece of jewelry, like a necklace or a ring," he says and Saori falls silent as her cheeks slowly start burning.

"A-A...ring?" Saori whispers softly, cupping her cheeks and looking at the ground. "B-but I'm not ready for something like this. We are still too young...and what our parents would say..." Saori keeps mumbling more to herself than Tyler, who is giving her a funny look.

"You know, I'm not buying you a wedding ring if that's what you are thinking," he says, but his words fail to reach Saori, who has already departed for her own dreamland of sunshines and rainbows.

Suddenly snapping out of her own delirium, she turns her head to look at Miho so fast, that Tyler is afraid she might snap her neck.

"Wipe the floor with her, Miporin!" she yells at her commander, her eyes burning with fiery determination.

After a few long seconds that seem to last an eternity, both Odysseus and Miho shoot forward towards each other so fast, that the girls looking at them think they have teleported. Only Kōrino and Kasai are able to see their blurred figures for a split second, before they meet at the center of the training grounds.

Stopping in front of each other, Odysseus swings her scythe downwards diagonally from right to left in an effort to hit Miho at her left shoulder, but Miho sees this, takes a step forwards and raises her left dagger so that its blade hits the pole of Odysseus' scythe near its curved blade and block the strike. As the weapons collide, a powerful shockwave erupts and hits Mannheim's barrier, which pops into view, shining brightly with an apple green color.

While the barrier does stop the shockwave from throwing the girls everywhere, it does little to stop the extremely loud thunderclap that nearly deafens them.

"What was that!?" Yukari shouts in surprise, covering her ears in response.

"So much power from a single strike..." Hana gasps in awe, as several of the girls from Rabbit team have done.

"Not bad, not bad," Odysseus smirks at Miho, adding more and more pressure in her weapon in order to push Miho back.

"I could say the same to you," Miho responds, trying to withstand Odysseus' increasing pressure with only one hand. "but you seem to have forgotten I have a second weapon." Twirling her second dagger that sits on her right hand so that the blade is now facing forwards, Miho goes for a stabbing motion at Odysseus' left side, just below her kidney.

Odysseus sees this and parries the strike with the pole of her scythe, causing Miho's dagger to slightly nick her uniform. "Ah, look what you did to my uniform! Now I have to mend it!" Odysseus fakes a whine and with a grunt pushes Miho away, then lightly taps the pole of the scythe against the ground. A shockwave of concentrated Ether erupts at the impact point and throws Miho backwards, causing her to roll a few times on the ground, before using the momentum to stand back on her feet and grind to a halt. Dashing after her, Odysseus uses her tendrils to strike Miho on her chest and head to stun her.

Miho jumps in the air to avoid the tendrils, levels herself so that she is parallel to the ground and spins clockwise once, using her daggers to slice what is essentially Odysseus' wings to pieces. But that's fine with Odysseus, since she now has more then enough time to get close to Miho and beat the crap out of her. Reaching her the moment she lands, Odysseus swings her scythe's pole and hits Miho's legs, causing her to fall on her back. Twirling her scythe one final time, Odysseus brings its giant curved blade down to Miho like an executioner's axe with the intent of splitting her head in two. Miho uses her crystal wings to block the lethal strike just in time, the curved blade stopping millimeters away from her face.

"I thought...we agreed to not have...lethal hits," Miho groans as she tries to hold Odysseus' weapon with her wings from cleaving her head in half.

"But where's the fun in that!?" Odysseus snickers at Miho, putting more and more pressure at her weapon.

"Then don't blame me if you get hurt," Miho groans, then grins at her enemy.

"What are you planning?" Odysseus asks, her senses telling her to back off.

"Why don't you look in front of you?"

Without giving it a second thought, Odysseus dashes backwards as fast as she can and looks in front of her, spotting half a dozen black spears heading towards her at an alarming speed.

"You fucking bitch, I had completely forgotten about those things!" she yells in mild amusement. Having put enough distance between her and Miho, she creates a barrier out of her energy, as well as reforms her wings and uses them to cover herself. But the moment the spears touch her barrier, they explode into harmless smoke that obscures her field of vision.

"Of course you wouldn't go for the kill..." Odysseus says slowly as she flaps her energy wings to clear the smoke. Once it has dissipated enough to be able to see again she looks at Miho, who is looking back at her, now standing at the same spot where Odysseus had tripped her on the ground.

"[Overclock]," Miho mutters and as Odysseus can clearly she, her enemy vanishes onto thin air before her very eyes.

"Where did she-" Odysseus starts saying, before feeling the right side of her head getting bashed by Miho's airborne side kick, causing the blonde girl to get hurled sideways and painfully grind against the ground, her scythe flying a few meters away from her. Coming to a stop Odysseus painfully tries to stand up but Miho, who has dashed after her, simply kicks her on her ribs, so that Odysseus lands on her back, pins her down with her right foot and throws the daggers she has been holding with so much force, that they end up getting lodged in the ground that is next to Odysseus' head.

Odysseus grabs Miho's ankle and lets a minute amount of Ether to latch on her boot, before the energy starts slowly ascending the back side of Miho.

"You missed," she grins at Miho, slowly changing her wings to tendrils. Miho spots it and conjures two more daggers, this time made completely out of energy and throws them at Odysseus' wings.

"You think so?" Miho responds and snaps her right hand's fingers, causing the two black daggers that are next to Odysseus' head to start vibrating. "[Echo of Screams]."

A second later the air gets filled with a sound that can only be described as the shrill screams of terrified children, nearly deafening everyone who is watching the fight.

"What is this sound!?" Yukari yells in both surprise and pain, her ears ringing so loudly that she can barely hear her own voice. Mako is hiding behind her, crouching and trembling in fear, while both Hana and Saori look at the origin of this terrifying sound.

"Did Miho just do that?" Saori blurts out, looking at Miho who is still pinning Odysseus on the ground.

"Yep," Tyler responds immediately, trying his best to ignore the ringing in his ears. "and it seems to have been really effective," he points at Odysseus who has her hands tightly pressed over her ears and is cringing from the pain.

"I'd say that's a checkmate," Reiji says and looks at his watch on his left hand. "Only six minutes have passed."

"Which means you win...again," Tyler frowns slightly and reaches in his pocket to take fifty thousand yen and hand it to Reiji, but Annabelle stops him.

"Not yet," she says, pointing at Odysseus. "Look at her expression. You know this smirk well, don't you?"

"She's planning something, isn't she?" Reiji says slowly and Annabelle nods.

"But she has been cornered," Hana says. "Can she even get herself out of such a precarious position?"

"Odysseus can be pretty deceptive if she wants to. Create a false image that she has been beaten," Annabelle says to Hana. "And while Miho isn't stupid enough to lower her guard, will she be able to tell that Odysseus has already set her plan in motion?"

"What do you mean?" Yukari asks and Reiji points at Miho's back. A small circle that is composed of greek letters made of cyan energy spins clockwise, inside it spinning counterclockwise a gear that has a triangle in its center.

"Wait, what is that thing on Miho's back?" Saori asks as she squints her eyes to get a better look at the strange circle.

"A mark," Annabelle says with an amused smile.

"So that's the [Reaper's Mark] she has been talking about?" Tyler asks Annabelle.

"Probably," she says with a shrug, then points behind her at a tall hooded figure that hovers in the air. "You can always ask Scythe."

"Since when has it been there?" Tyler asks as he watches the tall Reaper raising its right bony arm to greet the boys and girls. While most of them have been somewhat gotten used to seeing this terrifying symbol of death, courtesy of Odysseus using it to prank almost everyone, it still creates some uneasiness to them, especially Mako who is now hiding behind Saori.

"Mako, it isn't going to hurt you, it is friendly," Saori groans and tries to remove Mako from her back.

"I-I-It sc-scares me," Mako stutters while peeking at Scythe from Saori's right side.

Seeing this, the Reaper slowly hovers over to Saori, its two wisps of red light that act as eyes gazing intently at Mako.

Needless to say, Mako has now frozen in time from her fear.

"She is backed in a corner, yet she has time to mess with everyone," Reiji sighs as she spots Odysseus looking at them with a toothy grin.

"Why are you grinning?" Miho asks Odysseus, slightly perplexed at her Cheshire cat grin.

"Many reasons," Odysseus answers, the gleam in her eyes suggesting that she is planning something. Miho snaps her fingers and the black daggers start vibrating once more.

"Do you surrender?" Miho asks as she summons three black kunai knives, holding them between her right hand's fingers, all of them crackling with electricity. "Or should I make you?"

"Surrender? Pffft...ahahahaha!" Odysseus laughs loudly. "You must be joking! Things are far from over Miho!" Odysseus' pierced wings start glowing dimly, getting brighter and brighter as if they are charging. "Let's see how it is to be the hunted, little wolf!"

Before Miho can react, Odysseus' wings break into tendrils and shatter the vibrating blades, their pieces flying everywhere. Unable to activate her [Echo of Screams] as the skill requires a vessel, such as an enchanted dagger, Miho jumps away and avoids a few of the tendrils that swing at her while throwing the black kunai knives all around Odysseus.

"[Reaper's Mark]," Odysseus grins like a psychopath at Miho as the kunai knives crackle with red electricity briefly. Three pillars of red energy shoot in the air from the ground, completely engulfing Odysseus' figure.

"This should be a KO," Miho mutters as she looks at the three pillars, spawning several energy spears around her just in case Odysseus has somehow survived this devastating attack. Though as she watches the pillars slowly getting smaller and smaller, she notices that Odysseus is nowhere to be found. Feeling that something is not right, she immediately turns around and raises her daggers just in time to block yet another strike from Odysseus that is aimed at her neck.

"Don't even think about launching those spears or I'll turn you into Swiss cheese," Odysseus threatens Miho, her tendrils hovering over her shoulders ready to strike.

Finding themselves into a stalemate, both girls glare at each other, weapons ready to strike at the slightest hint of movement. It's truly like a mexican standoff, where the first one to draw wins, though instead of guns there are swords and magic.

"Soooo...what do we do now?" Odysseus says with her usual slasher smile, eyeing each and every energy spear that floats around Miho.

"We can always call it a draw," Miho suggests calmly, eyeing Odysseus' tendrils that sway left and right as if in water, though they remind her of snakes ready to strike. Her spears start solidifying, the red, translucent energy transforming into black metal starting from the middle and slowly expanding towards the edges.

"Nah, that would be too boring."

"Then what shall we do?"

"How about giving ourselves some breathing space first and then try to strike each other again?"

"So you can teleport behind me and attack me?"

"Oooooh, you are a smart one!"

"Please stop mocking me, it has no effect whatsoever."

Having finished enchanting her spears, Miho turns some of them to face the ground, an intricate pattern of red waves, like the ones you see when representing sound waves, adorning their surface. Odysseus sees this, yet she refrains from taking any action, growing curious about what Miho is planning.

"I guess you have a plan in mind?" she asks with a sly smile, pointing with her left hand at the spears.

"How perceptive of you," Miho mocks Odysseus the same way she did, but Odysseus just keeps grinning.

"Oh my, that's not proper conduct for a Nishizumi! What would your sister say about this if she was here?" Odysseus pops a really nasty smirk towards Miho that everyone can see. "Miss I'm-insecure-and-run-away-from-my-problems."

Miho gives a loud sigh in response to the insult and looks Odysseus straight in the eyes. "If you'd called me this two years ago I would've agreed with you, but not anymore." Feeling that they have chatted enough for now, Miho taps her foot once and the black spears that face the ground get lodged in it and start vibrating. Odysseus whips her tendrils at Miho, but she blocks them with her wings, chips of red crystal flying everywhere.

Odysseus dashes a meter back, draws her scythe back and swings it again at Miho who blocks the strike with her daggers.

"[Resonance]!" Miho bellows and the vibrating spears start pulsing with red energy, creating a low rumbling sound. A few seconds later, everything in a two hundred meters radius start vibrating violently, like there is an earthquake. The weird thing is that the ground doesn't develop any cracks or fissures despite the shaking, which strikes the spectators as weird and even somewhat nauseating as even the air is vibrating, creating a turbulent image for everyone to watch.

"Aaarrgghhhh!" Odysseus drops her scythe and grabs her head with both hands. "I feel like my damn brain is becoming jelly!" she cries out. Falling to her knees, she tries her best to fight this agonizing pain that is so strong, Odysseus is seriously contemplating to just start bashing it on the ground. On the other hand Miho looks unaffected by the vibrations, slowly walking to Odysseus. Reaching her, she raises her right hand over her shoulder and forms a fist. Thrusting it forwards to punch Odysseus in the face, a blue tendril shoots out of the ground next to Miho and wraps itself around her right wrist, followed by seven more tendrils that mimic the first one and wrap themselves around various body parts, restraining her on the spot.

"Eh?!" Miho gasps in surprise, not expecting Odysseus to be able to still fight.

"You didn't think I was done for, did you?" Odysseus forces a sly grin over her painful grimace. Her tendrils that protrude from her back have lodged themselves on the ground behind her, having dug through the earth until they were under Miho. Rising to her feet, albeit with great difficulty, and still grasping one side of her head tightly with her left hand, she uses her tendrils to smash Miho against the vibrating spears, thus ending [Resonance] and allowing her to stop shaking like a damn shaker. Feeling a lot better and being able to think more clearly now, Odysseus throws Miho at the edge of Mannheim's barrier with enough force that the barrier not only lits up in a bright apple green color but also develops some cracks, that are quickly repaired.

Miho tries to use the remainder of her black spears to recast [Resonance], but Odysseus breaks them apart using her tendrils.

"Ouch," Miho groans slightly in pain, feeling like she was just hit by a train and was thrown into a wall by it. Though it is nowhere near as painful or brutal as Mannheim's punch that literally crushed some of her internal organs.

Shuddering subconsciously at that grim reminder, Miho stands up and dusts herself of any dirt that might have gotten stuck at her uniform. She feels her legs a little wobbly, but the feeling disappears fairly quickly.

"Well then, since you showed us one of your new tricks, let me show you one of mine," Odysseus says mischievously.

"[Split Personality]."

Blue Ether starts gatheting next to Odysseus, starting from a tiny orb the size of a ping-pong ball all the way to the size of a basketball ball. Miho simply conjures some black kunai knives that have a red chain tattooed on their surface, snaking around it. Having made four of them, she throws them a few meters in front of her and then she conjures two energy daggers.

"Oooohhh, are you planning a trap?" Odysseus says as the orb of energy stops growing. Taking the form of a figure, the energy starts solidifying until a a certain someone appears.

"Woah, this is so weird."

"I know right? This is gonna mess our memories so much."

"What..." Miho can only look with eyes widen in surprise as she can see an exact copy of Odysseus sitting next to her. Rubbing her eyes to make sure she isn't just imagining things, she keeps scanning the clone, trying to understand what's going on. The rest of the girls have a look of confusion and surprise etched on their faces too, having seen Odysseus basically cloning herself.

"My God, Odysseus is multiplying! Someone call the military quickly!" Tyler fakes a terrified voice, raising his hands next to his head and shaking them left and right.

"Quickly Reiji, grab some gasoline! We need to kill it with fire!" Annabelle laughs out loudly and Reiji joins the chorus as he starts chuckling.

"You guys, why would you make fun of your own commander?" Saori berates the trio, though she mostly addresses the question to Tyler. Even the rest of the Anglerfish team are giving them weird looks.

"You obviously haven't spent a lot of time around us," Annabelle answers Saori. "You should see the insults we throw at each other, especially the ones Odysseus says. Mocking each other is one way for us to have fun and kill some time."

Now that's something the girls can't wrap their heads around. How is insulting someone "fun"?

Back on the battlegrounds, Odysseus is chatting with her clone, while Miho is making more of the black kunai knives with the chain tattoo and throwing them all around the battlefield.

"This is so weird. If I am you, how can I be a separate entity?" the clone asks, quite interested in knowing how the hell she is the same Odysseus as the original, yet at the same time, a different one.

"Hell if I know!" Odysseus throws her hands up in the air, this being the fifth time the clone asks her the same thing. "Look, just think of it as being one of our three personalities taking temporary control of the copy, OK? If you want to learn more about it, just ask Mannheim about it, I'm sure he has a bullshit theory about it," she points at Mannheim who is looking at her with a lot of curiosity." Can we please get on with the battle now? Miho is filling the area with kunai knives that I have no idea what they do and it might be a problem for us if she keeps doing that."

"Ok," the clone responds and follows up with a question. "Why did you "summon" me?"

"To fight her," Odysseus points at Miho.

"I see," the clone says and looks at Miho. "I'm not interested. Good luck with it."

"Huh!?" Odysseus yells at the clone who is slowly walking away. "The fuck you mean you aren't interested!? I brought you here to do a job, not to go and hang out with Annabelle!"

"Well, too bad for you! Adios amigos!" the clone shouts back and waves her hand. Most of the spectators just have a look of disbelief at this spectacle, having no idea what's going on anymore.

Odysseus just glares at the clone, though her expression slowly transforms into a mischievous grin. The clone slowly comes to a halt and turns to look at her, an expression of pure terror covering her beautiful face.

Y-Y-You...you wouldn't dare..." the clone whispers in a quivering voice, raising a shaking hand and pointing at Odysseus. "You would never..."

"Oh but I would!" Odysseus says smugly, a dark aura materializing around her.

"Y-You fiend, do you not know the sacrifices we had to make to acquire them!?"

 **"Exactly! So unless you want for our little collection to become nothing more than a pile of ashes, I suggest you start behaving yourself."**

Having no other choice, the clone starts walking towards Miho, summoning her scythe and giving it a few swings.

"I'm really sorry Miho, but I have no other choice," the clone says with a sad voice. The air around her starts pulsing and blue energy starts covering her entire body. Crouching slightly, her eyes lock on Miho. "But I have to protect my magazine collection at all costs!" she roars with fiery determination, like the fate of the whole world rests upon her shoulders. Odysseus just smirks victoriously as her wings start glowing.

"Then show me your worth!" Miho calls, taking a defensive stance, holding her daggers in a reverse grip.

The clone shoots forward like a bullet, reaching Miho in under a second. Swinging her scythe horizontally, she finds herself losing all of her momentum, thus causing the curved blade to scratch Miho's breastplate. Faceplanting on the ground, the clone quickly looks behind her back and finds a red chain that connects to the ground wrapped around her left leg. "So that's what that weird kunai knives were," she mutters as she turns to lie on her back and raises her scythe to block a strike from Miho. Odysseus teleports behind her, so Miho spins around to parry a vertical strike and counterattack, giving the clone a chance to break the chain with her tendrils and ambush Miho, who blocks her strikes with her crystal wings.

"I have to ask, but what did the clone mean she has to protect her magazine collection?" Saori asks curiously, looking at Miho, Odysseus and her clone trading blows, alternating into attacking and defending.

"Ah yes, her famous magazine collection. As she said, she did have to make a lot of sacrifices to acquire them, especially those limited editions," Tyler snickers. "Wouldn't you agree Reiji?"

"Absolutely. Such national treasures, it would be wrong not to safeguard them with your own life," Reiji starts snickering too.

"Uhm, excuse me for intruding in your conversation but...what are these magazines that are so valuable to her?" Hana asks with a curious tone. Yukari, and even Mako (since Scythe has gone to sit next to Kuro, she can move again) turn to hear on what the Antelope team will answer.

"They are basically porn magazines," Annabelle answers bluntly and an eerie silence rises, only the sound of clashing weapons filling the air. Hana covers her mouth slightly as her cheeks start blushing slightly, while Yukari and Mako look away in slight disgust. Saori's head has instantly become as red as hot iron.

"W-W-W-W-What!?" Saori stutters hard. "Th-They are this k-kind of magazines!?"

"Yep. Just for future reference, Odysseus might as well be the biggest pervert in the whole base right now," Annabelle informs the girls with a neutral face, like what she's saying is nothing out of the ordinary. "Plus her libido seems to be endless," she says with a hint of bitterness, remembering how much toilet paper her restless roommate has been wasting lately.

"Your commander is...quite the _'unique'_ individual," Hana comments with an awkward smile.

"Hey girls!" a voice calls from behind them and they all turn to find Yuki along with the most of the Ooarai teams, only the Duck Team and Turtle Team missing.

"Hey Yuki!" Saori is the first one to greet her and the others follow suit, greeting the rest of the girls too.

"Uhm, where is the Turtle Team and the Duck Team?" Yukari asks, noticing they are missing.

"The girls from Duck Team are playing volleyball at the courtyard, screaming "guts!" every second spike and Miss Anzu said she wanted some time alone. Miss Yuzu and Miss Momo stayed behind with her," Yuki answers then notices the three figures fighting in the marked area. "So that's why I was picking such strong signatures from this direction. Is Miho fighting someone?"

"She is having a sparring match with Odysseus," Mako says in her usual sleepy voice.

"With that idiot? I guess the match will be over in no time."

"They have been fighting for ten minutes now."

"Oh..."

"Hey you three, it's against the rules to be fighting!", Sodoko shouts at the three figures fighting, walking towards the marked area.

"Sodoko, you'll fall on the barrier," Mako warns her.

"My name is not Sodoko, is Sono Midoriko, Reizei!" Sodoko grumbles. "And about what barrier are you talki-Ouch!" she cries out as she collides with Mannheim's barrier face first.

"Sodoko are you okay!?" both Pazomi and Gomoyo cry out and run to their leader to see if and how badly she's hurt.

Meanwhile, the battle between Miho and Odysseus has been steadily becoming more and more brutal, with both sides performing more and more risky strikes.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaagh!" Odysseus roars as she swings her scythe vertically. Miho parries the strike, diverting it with her dagger to the left and the scythe's blade gets lodged in the ground with enough force to form cracks around the impact point. Miho thrusts her right dagger forward to strike Odysseus square on her chest, but Odysseus barely manages to sidestep the thrust, the dagger's blade scraping against her breastplate.

"That was close!" she remarks as she pulls her scythe out of the ground and uses it to block another strike from Miho. The clone appears a few meters behind Miho and jumps into the air, her scythe raised behind her right shoulder, ready to swing it. Several red chains shoot out of the ground and wrap around her waist and arms, immobilizing her immediately and causing her to fall to the ground. Seeing that one enemy is down for now, Miho uses her wings as a makeshift weapon and hits Odysseus square in the gut, forcing the air out of her lungs. As Odysseus falls to her knees and starts gasping for air, Miho materializes four black spears and throws them in front of Odysseus, all of them getting lodged in the ground. A second later a huge explosion rocks the battlefield that throws a smoking Odysseus backwards to messily roll into a stop. Miho turns around to knock out the clone, who is still struggling to break free from her bondage. Since the chains have wrapped around her tendrils too, she cannot use them to break free, and as much force as she may exert, the chains simply refuse to budge.

"Guess this is the end, huh?" the clone smiles sheepishly at Miho. "Well, it was a nice fight." Her expression instantly flips to one of madness though, which is enough to alarm Miho. "Too bad you lost it."

Right in front of Miho, the clone transforms into a ball of energy that shoots up into the sky, and upon reaching a height of one hundred meters, stops. Dark clouds start forming all around it, slowly rotating counterclockwise. Miho can feel energy amassing at the center of the rotating clouds, but other than that, she has no idea what is about to happen. Turning around, she finds Odysseus standing about fifty meters away from her. Her uniform is in tatters and the front of her body is covered mostly in black soot and bleeding lightly from grazes in her hands and cheeks.

"I have to admit, you almost got me with that explosion!" she shouts at Miho. Raising her right hand over her head, she tightly clenches her hand and forms a fist. Immediately the clouds over Miho start spinning faster and faster and a weird blue light starts glowing through the center of rotation. "But this is as far as you go!"

Miho can feel the energy above her growing exponentially. Whatever Odysseus is planning, is going to be really draining for her. So, if she can survive or evade the hit, she will be the victor in this battle.

"[Destruction Catalyst]!" Odysseus roars and whips her arm downwards.

"[Overclock]!" Miho shouts and immediately dives to her right. Everything comes to a halt for her thanks to this strange skill of hers that lets her move and perceive everything around her several times faster than normal. Even then, she barely avoids a pillar of blue energy that descends from the formed clouds and strikes the place where she was standing mere moments ago. After a few seconds (in Miho's time) the energy pillar becomes smaller gradually, then completely dissappears, leaving behind only a circle of blue colored ground. Seeing as the attack has missed her, Miho is about to deactivate [Overclock], since prolonged use of it can lead to some bizarre side-effects, such as screwing with her perception of time. But as she does that and time slowly returns to normal, she hears a buzzing sound, like a motor that's revving up. Looking at her left, she finds the blue circle glowing brightly.

Widening her eyes in revelation, Miho uses her crystal wings to cover herself. As time finally returns to normal, a huge explosion erupts next to her, the fireball of it completely engulfing her. Chunks of ground, dirt and dust fly everywhere, going as far as to strike against Mannheim's barrier. The shockwave from the explosion lits up the barrier like a Christmas tree, even cracking it at certain points. As the smoke clears, everyone can clearly see Miho lying on the ground next to a small crater. Like Odysseus, her clothes are in tatters, but since her breastplate and gauntlets are black, the soot on them is barely noticeable. Her crystal wings have completely shattered and she is lightly bleeding from her legs, since the wings couldn't cover lower than the upper parts of her thighs. Coughing violently a few times, she uses as much strength as she has on her hands and slowly rises from the ground. Sitting up on it, she takes a few breaths and lets her body heal some of her injuries, before attempting to stand up. Odysseus on the other hand in on her knees, panting hard and sweating profusely. Albeit really destructive, this attack has used most of her energy and this is reflected by her wings that seem to be flickering in and out of existence.

Capitalizing on the fact that her enemy is currently powerless, Miho raises her right arm so that her open palm faces Odysseus and then closes it, causing several black chains to shoot out of the ground around the blonde girl and restrain her.

Odysseus doesn't even have the strength to resist, so she patiently waits to see what Miho will do. Miho, seeing that there is no immediate threat, slowly materializes eight black spears that crackle with red electricity. The spears slowly rise behind her and form a circle, before starting to rotate clockwise, until they form a blurry image of a cylinder. In the center of it an orb of red Ether energy starts forming, with red lightnings jumping out of it and striking either the rotating spears or the ground below it.

"I'll ask you one final time," Miho pants slightly, her voice showing the exhaustion and fatigue she has accumulated during the fight. "Do you surrender?"

"Pfft, why would I do that?" Odysseus says haughtily, despite her current situation. "You'll have to make me surrender!"

"Then I'll do just that."

The blurry cylinder's diameter starts growing and so does the orb contained within it. The lightnings that strike the ground are much bigger now and even scorch it somewhat. Miho is definitely looking to end the match with this attack.

"Come on Miho, is that all the power you can muster? Pathetic! What would your sister think if she could see how weak and frail you are, huh!?" Odysseus taunts Miho, who is showing no signs of biting the bait.

"Does she have a death wish?" Tyler asks in a nonchalant attitude.

"I think she might have a plan," Annabelle says and points at Miho. "[Reaper's Mark] should still be in effect, so I think she is intentionally taunting Miho to make her attack with as much power as she can muster."

"But why do something like that?" Yukari questions Annabelle's idea. "She is clearly in a disadvantageous position and it's not like Miss Nishizumi would be taunted that easily."

"This were you are wrong, Miss Akiyama," Mannheim of all people says, speaking for the first time since the match started and everyone turns to look at him.

"Wrong?" Yukari asks quite puzzled.

"Why would you say something like that?" Yuki questions the scientist with curiosity.

"What you fail to understand about the powers your friends wield, is that they change their personalities."

"Change their personalities!?" Saori gasps in alarm. "Is Miporin someone else now!?"

"No, she is still the same person you knew before," Mannheim answers quickly. "It's just that her behavior has changed. For example, their commander," he points at Annabelle and the rest of the Antelope Team, "has become even more unstable mentally, as she clearly shows signs of insanity." He pauses for a second as he starts contemplating hard on something. "Though now that I think about it, she seems to have several personalities, so she could be a special case. Anyway, your commander," he now points at Saori, "becomes a lot more aggressive and apathetic towards everything."

"That's..." Yukari immediately wants to deny the fact that a sweet and kind person like Miho could behave like that, but then remembers the day when they stormed that underground lab near Tokyo. After Miho had successfully stopped one of Odin's munitions by literally punching it out of the air and got thrown backwards, Yukari had run to help her stand up, but when Miho said to her she was fine, the tone of her voice was that of slight annoyance.

Then again she might be overthinking the whole situation and Miho is the same gentle and kind girl when using her powers as when she isn't using them.

"But don't fret too much about it. Given enough time and practice she can negate the effects of this behavioral change. Of course, if her power increases more she'll need more practice and time to adjust," Mannheim reassures the girls who all have concerned expressions.

Despite not trusting him fully, the girls do relax somewhat. He is the one that made the Serums, so he must know something more than them, right?

"So, since you are the creator of the Serums and have the power of one of these god-like beings you call 'Ether Lords', who do you think will win the fight?" Yuki asks Mannheim, curious about his opinion.

"Hmm...that's a rather difficult question to answer," Mannheim answers, making a thoughtful expression.

"How so?"

"Because in terms of raw power and destructiveness, the blonde girl far outclasses Subject 23. On the other hand, though, Miss Nishizumi far surpasses her in strength and Ether capacity. So in a short battle, Miss...uhm...Odysseus has the advantage, but in a prolonged battle, Miss Nishizumi has the advantage."

"What about this battle?" Annabelle asks.

"As things stand, Miss Nishizumi will be the victor. Unless of course Miss Odysseus has another underhanded trick up her sleeve." Despite what Mannheim has said just now, he feels quite unsure as to how the battle will end. Since he can sense Ether signatures, he can say with certainty that the girls have been holding back quite a lot. Miho's signature, for example, is weaker than the time he fought her and she was holding back even then. So, what would happen if they truly went all-out?

"I believe she does have one more skill she has been practicing lately," Annabelle says and turns to look at her commander. "And she is about to use it."

"I hope you are ready, cause this is going to hurt," Miho warns as she raises her right hand so that it faces Odysseus.

"Oh don't worry Miho, I'm sure it will hurt..." Odysseus closes her eyes and smiles coldly.

"[Railgun]," Miho says and the orb of energy gets fired.

"...both of us. [Connect]," Odysseus whispers at the same time as Miho fires her attack and a fine thread of light blue energy shoots out of the base of her neck and flies to the mark that still glows on Miho's back.

Miho can feel a jolt of electricity running through her spine as the thread touches the energy circle, causing the revolving gear to lock in place and the triangle inside it to disappear, followed by the mark that starts fading.

"Wha-?" Miho starts saying, but when her attack finally hits, her whole body explodes with unimaginable pain so great that she can't even scream. Collapsing on the ground, she can only twitch and gasp for air, trying her hardest to keep herself from fainting.

Odysseus is now a few more meters away from Miho, courtesy of the huge explosion the orb has caused upon collision with her body. Her breastplate as well as her left gauntlet have completely shattered and her uniform has even been singed in certain places.

"Aw fuck, that hurt a lot more then I expected," she groans as she rolls on her belly and tries to stand up. Her whole body aches and throbs, but thanks to her training in the Reaper Program she had received she can push through this much. It certainly isn't as painful as getting showered with thousand pieces of hot shrapnel that cut through you like a hot knife through butter. Finally standing up on her shaking legs, she takes a few deep breaths and waits for her power to heal her body a little before doing anything else. She can feel a lot of concerned and worried gazes falling upon her, but she has no time to think about it as she can see Miho already standing up from the ground. She's honestly impressed Miho can even remain conscious when she has felt the pain she felt twofold.

"What was...that [Connect] skill...you used?" Miho asks, still panting and even sweating slightly from the pain she's currently feeling.

"It lets me connect with a marked target and make them feel the pain I feel two times stronger," Odysseus answers. A blue aura starts covering her body, blue energy swirling around her right gauntlet. "I think it's time to end this." For the first time in the whole fight, Odysseus makes a serious expression, though her eyes still remain like that of a lunatic. "Wouldn't you agree?"

Miho says nothing in response, but a red aura starts covering her own body, red energy swirling on her left gauntlet. Her expression remains the same as it was at the start, but her eyes now burn with determination.

"It seems the fight is about to end," Tyler says, noticing the visible auras that cover the girls. "Hey, Reiji, how much time has passed?"

"Fifteen minutes and forty-two seconds," Reiji looks at his watch and answers. He then retrieves fifty thousand yen from one of his pockets and hands it to Tyler. "Seems like I have lost. Now it's between you and Annabelle."

"Whether Odysseus wins or loses, I'll get something out of it, so I don't care that much," Annabelle says, then notices that Yuki, who is standing in front of her, is trembling. "Kid, are you cold?"

This naturally draws the attention of the girls and Saori scoots next to her to see what's wrong.

"Yuki, are you okay?" she asks, seeing that the girl is visibly trembling and her face is somewhat pale.

"Their s-s-signatures...the p-power they are emitting...can't you feel it?" she whispers in a terrified voice. She's so scared in fact that she subconsciously summons her black sword, which greatly alarms the girls.

"Yuki, what are you doing!?" Saori gasps in surprise.

"You can't feel it because you don't have powers like her, but your two friends over there have the signature of an Ether Lord if you add them together," Mannheim speaks up.

"Wait what!? That's crazy!" Yukari shouts loud enough for the nearby people, such as the girls from the rest of the Ooarai teams to hear her. Kasai and Kōrino have already retreated back to the dormitory, having sensed the immense amount of Ether that Miho and Odysseus have gathered. Even Kuro and Scythe are nowhere to be found, having decided that a tactical retreat is the best choice.

"Then what will happen if they clash?" Hana urgently asks Mannheim, having a really bad feeling.

"What happened at Tokyo on a smaller scale," Mannheim answers, then raises his right hand. "But that's why I'm here. To make sure that they don't blow everything to oblivion...yet." The once invisible barrier reveals itself glowing in an apple green color. Four more barriers are erected around the training grounds, as wells as individual barriers surround the groups of people, just in case.

"Miss Saori, what's going on!?" Azusa asks in worry, seeing that she and her team have been suddenly encased inside an apple green dome.

"Don't worry Azusa, this is just to be safe!" Saori answers immediately to make sure none of the girls from the Rabbit Team start panicking.

 _*Boom*_

Hearing a sound that can only be described as something breaking the sound barrier, Saori turns just in time to see Miho's and Odysseus' punches connect with each other. A brilliant flash blinds everyone moments before a massive shockwave instantly shatters all four of Mannheim's barriers and even cracks the individual ones, but thankfully doesn't destroy them, or the girls might have gone for a short flight through the air.

Huge fissures form in the ground, some having the width of a small truck. Columns of red and blue Ether energy erupt all around Miho and Odysseus, their height easily reaching several hundred meters. The ground starts shaking violently and violent winds pick up, reaching speeds of at least a hundred kilometers per hour.

"It's like the end of the world is happening!" Tyler yells over the winds, hugging Saori and trying to keep her from falling.

"You don't say, Captain Obvious!" Annabelle shouts back at him.

As the shaking and the winds die down, the columns of Ether disappear. A huge cloud of dust looms over the training grounds and the surrounding area, blocking vision of Miho and Odysseus.

"Wow, so much dust," Yukari comments. "You can't see more than a meter away. It's practically like there was a sandstorm in the area."

"At least the barrier keeps the dust out," Saori sighs in relief, being quite comfortable sitting in Tyler's embrace.

"The cloud is dissipating," Mako says as she notices the cloud rolling away and soon enough, the full extent of the damage caused is revealed.

A huge crater has replaced the training grounds, with two figures in it, one standing and one lying.

"Odysseus, are you alright?" Miho asks Odysseus as she stands next to her. Her powers have been deactivated as whatever little energy she had was used to heal all of the wounds her body had.

"Better then ever," Odysseus answers as she looks up to Miho from the ground. Like her, Odysseus' power have deactivated, having spent the last scraps of her energy to heal her body. "I admit defeat," she says and starts clapping. "Congratulations Miho, you have won the duel."

"Thanks," Miho says tiredly as she helps Odysseus up, albeit with some difficulty.

"You sound a bit tired," Odysseus pops a tired grin.

"It was a rather exhausting duel, even if we held back for most of it," Miho sighs tiredly.

"You could tell I was holding back?" Odysseus asks in surprise. "And sorry for the things I said to you in the battle. I didn't mean any of them, I was just trying to provoke you...ehehehe," Odysseus laughs sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck with her right hand.

"Don't worry, I knew you didn't mean any of them," Miho smiles at her, then looks all around her and sighs. "So much for keeping the damages to a minimum."

"Commander!" Miho hears multiple voices and instantly gets surrounded from Azusa and her friends.

"Are you okay, Commander?" Aya asks quickly as she adjusts her glasses, whose left lens is broken.

"I'm fine Aya, don't worry," Miho answers the blonde girl.

"Are you sure you don't require any first aid?" Azusa asks in concern.

"Yes, Azusa. I just need a little bit of rest and I'll be fine," Miho answers with a tired smile.

"Commander, what you did was awesome!" Karina says excitedly and raises both of her hands in the air. "It was like it came straight out of an anime!"

"Miporin!" Saori shouts as she, Hana, Mako, Yukari and Yuki quickly approach her, jumping over some of the small fissures that adorn the inside of the crater. "Are you okay? Did you got hurt anywhere? And look at your uniform, it has cuts and tears everywhere!"

"I'm okay Saori, you don't need to worry."

"Miss Nishizumi, your fighting was so cool!" Yukari squeals in delight, her eyes sparkling with amazement. "First the flying spears, then the thing where you teleported behind Odysseus and then this bright flash!"

"How was my fighting?" Odysseus asks her, interested in her opinion.

"Fine, I guess," Yukari answers, barely putting any effort to show any interest.

"I shot fucking lasers from the sky and pulled off actual teleportation, and your answer is just 'fine'!?" Odysseus says in disbelief. "I was way better than Miho, not to mention-" she abruptly stops speaking when she feels a hand squeezing her left shoulder. Her face instantly drains of any blood it has and she starts sweating profusely. "Oh shit," she murmurs then puts on her best smile, which comes out as a really awkward one, and slowly turns her head to the left.

"Hey Annabelle, long time no see," she says in her most cheerful voice. "What a great day today is, wouldn't you agree?"

"Indeed it is Odysseus," Annabelle responds with a bright smile of her own. "I believe we had placed a bet and you lost, no?"

"Well, you see...uhm...about the bet, I didn't mean it seriously, it was all just a joke...ehehehe," Odysseus tries to pass off the bet as a joke, but trying to fool Annabelle is like trying to turn lead into gold.

"There is no escape, Elpida~," Annabelle says in a rather sweet voice and squeezes her shoulder, causing her to squeal in fear. "I have a rather nice costume for you." She might as well have said she was putting her before a firing squad with the face of hopeless despair Odysseus makes at this.

"Now suffer the consequences of your choices."

"No, Annabelle, anything but that!" Odysseus screams as she literally gets dragged back to the dormitory to be subjected into what can only be described as cruel and inhumane torture.

At least that's her opinion.

"Reiji, Tyler, please help me!" she desperately calls out to her last lifeline...

"Sorry, I have a job to do."

"Your screams of despair are music to my ears."

...only for her hopes and dreams to crumble before her eyes.

While Odysseus is getting dragged towards her doom, the girls from Hippo Team and Anteater Team stand at the edge of the huge, but surprisingly shallow, crater inspecting the damage that has been done.

"This...is unbelievable," Erwin says slowly, trying to find words to describe the destruction in front of her. "So much power and destruction... This is what the Allies must have felt when they first discovered the existence of the Tiger tank."

"Or the enemy troops upon facing the might of the Roman legions," Caesar suggests.

"Or the Japanese people when the first atomic bomb fell in Hiroshima," Saemonza proposes and everyone nods in response, still in awe over the destruction Miho's power has created.

"This was so cool, just like in the games we have played!" Momoga says in excitement.

"The fight was like those boss levels you find in RPG games," Nekota says as she looks at the fissures the crater has.

"The ones with a fantasy setting, right?" Piyotan asks and Nekota nods.

A bit further from the girls stands Mannheim with his hands inside the pockets of his lab coat, gazing at Miho with a serious expression. The moment Odysseus and Miho clashed and produced this blinding flash, he spotted something very alarming; each girl had a halo of their respective energy over their heads. Even if it was for only a moment, it means that their forms can be further evolved, grant them more power. But if their current power potential is close to that of an Ether Lord's, a god-like being that holds unimaginable power...then what would these girl become if they surpassed them? Could they become actual goddesses and achieve true immortality and the power to alter reality as they see fit? If what he thinks is true, then they might be able to bring back his family, however impossible it might sound. Shaking his head slightly in disbelief, he starts heading back to the base's lab. Even if they can change reality, they cannot bring the dead back to life. Not even the Ether Lords could do it, at least the one that tried to save his family.

But he is getting sidetracked. First things first, he needs to analyze the recorded data from the fight and see if it can help anywhere with his research. And of course, make a cup of coffee to drink.

* * *

 **A/N: I hope you liked this chapter as much as i liked writing it. Really wanted to pit my OC against Miho and see who would be the winner. Anyway, next chapter will be answering a lot of questions this one may have created, may give some insight on Anzu's thoughts after learning what really happened to her sister as well as try to not take a whole month writing it. But no promises.** **A** **nyway, a** **s always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and** **there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**


	30. Chapter 30: Assignment

**The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 30: Assignment**

* * *

"That was one exhausting battle," Miho sighs as she exits her room and closes the door behind her.

After the conclusion of the battle between her and Odysseus, Miho retreated back to her room to take a shower in order to wash off the sweat and dirt she had on her and to change her uniform, which had numerous cuts and tears everywhere.

"Now then, first I have to go to Mannheim and see what he wants me for, as well as ask him about the second generation Serums," she starts thinking aloud while making her way towards the staircase that connects all the floors with the ground one. "Then I'll have to help Saori, Mako, Hana, Yukari and Yuki with room arrangement for the girls, as well as do some paperwork, since they'll be working here from today."

Reaching the staircase, which is only a few meters away from her room, she starts descending it slowly, though she doesn't pay too much attention in front of her.

"Also, I need to check how Anzu is, contact the Director and ask if he can build us a supply depot and a garage for any vehicles we may acquire...then again, I can ask Mannheim to build one out of thin air, since it seems that he can create a lot of different things with Ether. We also won't be needing mechanics since we have the girls from Leopon Team," she says as she reaches the first floor, then stops as she realizes something.

"Where are they?" she wonders aloud as she tries to think where she saw them last time. She did see them in the morning with the rest, probably checking out the base, but they didn't show up at the training grounds like the others. Maybe they found something else to occupy their time with? But there aren't any vehicles in this base except the Panzer IV and the Antelope Team's Cerberus, so...maybe they went to check out their condition?

"Ah, Miss Nishizumi!"

Raising her head to look at who called her, she finds the girls from Leopon Team standing in front of her. They are wearing black mechanic's outfits that had been provided to them by Blackout and holding next to them are their trusty tools they had salvaged from Ooarai when it got attacked.

"Ah, girls, I was wondering where you were! How have you been?" Miho greets them with a smile. She notices that their clothes are covered in machine oil and grease, which means they have been fiddling with something.

"We have been doing great!" Satoko, the commander of the Leopon Team, answers Miho, in her right hand holding a pair of screwdrivers.

"We have been checking out the new tanks that the base has in its underground garage," Hoshino says, lifting up the red toolbox she is carrying for added emphasis.

"These new tanks were like treasure chests! The technology used in them is even better than the one used in modern vehicles!" Tsuchiya says excitedly, lifting both of her gloved hands that hold a french key and a screwdriver.

"But some of them where really complex, so we decided to not fiddle with them too much, at least until we understand them a little bit better," Suzuki says, but then notices Miho's confused expression. "Uhm...Commander, are you okay?"

Underground garage? New Tanks? Miho has no idea what the girls are talking about. Last time she checked, there was no such thing, at least from what the Director had told her about the new base. "What underground garage and what new tanks are you talking about?" she asks the girls and it's their turn to look confused.

"Didn't Yuki inform you about it?" Satoko asks and Miho shakes her head slowly.

"She told us that there was a last minute change in the plans of the base and that there were some tanks Blackout captured from the Institute that they didn't want," Hoshino says.

"Is that so?" Miho asks with a thoughtful expression. _Then that means we don't have to worry about a place to store our vehicles for the time being,_ she thinks.

"Anyway, I have some business to attend, so I'll talk to you later girls. Take care!" she smiles at them.

"Take care too, Miss Nishizumi!" the girls wave at her, then go away, probably towards the baths to wash themselves. Miho continues descending the staircase and upon reaching the ground floor, takes a left at the long hallway that crosses the entire building from its one end to the other. Walking down the long hallway, she stops in front of a rather futuristic door that sits at the hallway's right side. The frame of the door seems to be made of aluminum, two red led lights shining on the left and right parts of it. The door seems to be made out of two metal parts that connect in the middle, the tiny gap between them forming the outline of a triangle that points upwards. Next to the door is a touchpad and on top of it a small, rectangular piece of plastic that has the phrase "R&D Lab" written on it with black letters.

"I guess this is it," Miho says, looking at the futuristic door with a bit of puzzlement. Searching for a button or a lever to open the door, she lightly presses the touchpad and two laser beams originating from the led lights start scanning her body. Getting surprised by this, Miho instinctively takes a step back, but the lasers merely keep scanning her for a few more moments, then disappear. The led lights turn green and the touchpad retracts into the wall, before a cover slides down to cover it.

 _"Unknown entity identified. Welcome, Miss Nishizumi,"_ a robotic voice says, then the door hisses and its two metallic parts get retracted on the floor and ceiling respectively.

 _Just what on earth did Mannheim build?_ Miho sweats a little at the display of this sci-fi moment she has witnessed just now. Honestly, she has only seen this kind of thing in movies and manga.

Entering the lab, the door behind her closes and hisses once more, indicating that it has been locked. Looking around, she can say with certainty that this room is really large, almost half as big as the tank garage in her school carrier was. There are a lot of wires and machinery lying all over the place, some being recognizable to her as equipment used by microbiologists, some used by physicists, and others used by chemists. On one side of the room is a desk with a rather futuristic computer that has no screen for some reason and a wireless keyboard and mouse. Next to it is a big shelf full with what looks like to be servers and UPS units. Looking at the far end of the room, she spots four stasis tubes filled with a clear liquid. They're mostly made of reinforced glass except for the top and bottom parts of them that are made of a black metal, with a lot of wires and tubes connecting to them. Getting curious, she slowly walks towards the stasis tubes, making sure not to trip over the multitude of cables that litter the floor near them. Upon reaching them, she places her hand against the glass of one of the tubes and she can immediately feel a warm feeling spreading through her hand and into the rest of her body. Retracting her hand, she turns to look back at one of the tables that has a few machines that she can recognize, and approaching it, she spots a centrifuge and a microscope. There is also a weird cylindrical device that has what looks like a rainbow crystal hovering between two dish-like pieces that connect with the inside ends of the cylinder, and even a weird cubical machine that has an open space at its front side. Inside this space there is a mug that is half-full with a brown liquid. Growing curious at this, she takes the mug and picks it up, looking inside it at the brown liquid. Sniffing once, the smell of it instantly reminds her of something that she hasn't seen, or rather smell, for a long time.

"Coffee?" she wonders aloud as she puts the mug back in its place. "So this is a coffee machine."

"Indeed it is. Would you like a cup, too?"

Turning around to see who talked to her, she finds Mannheim appearing from behind some stacks of boxes, his hands inside his labcoat's pockets.

"No, I'm fine," Miho answers as Mannheim stops next to her and picks up the mug. "It's just that I haven't smelled such a nice aroma in a coffee since the earthquakes happened. Most of it nowadays is rather...bland, to say the least."

"Is that so? I always made my own coffee so I didn't notice," he says as he points at the table and a small bag of roasted and grinded coffee beans appears. It even has its own brand, named 'Mannheim Inc.'.

"Wait, you can create even things like these?" Miho asks in surprise.

"Yes. I can even create food," he says after he takes a sip of coffee from his mug. "But I didn't call you here to discuss what I am capable of with my power. I called you here because I have something to show you." Walking towards the table that has the futuristic computer, he sits on a swivel chair and starts rummaging through a cardboard box that sits next to the chair on the ground.

Now that she has a moment to look around the lab once again, she notices that almost everything is white. The walls, the floor, the machinery, everything is colored white.

"Ah, here it is," Mannheim says and beckons to Miho to come closer. Reaching the table, Mannheim hands her what looks like a green orb made of some kind of glass, being no bigger than half a ping-pong ball.

"It is soft when I touch it, yet it looks like glass," Miho muses as she raises the orb above her head to better inspect it. "I can also feel trace amounts of Ether inside it. Is this some kind of container?" she asks as she hands it back to Mannheim.

"Yes and no," he answers as he takes the orb and puts it back into the box. "This is a way for people without powers to use Ether."

"Is that even possible? Don't you need to have a certain genome to be able to use Ether?"

"No. You see, the genome allows a human to gather raw Ether, in order to refine it and store it in the body. People without this genome can still use Ether, if they can somehow acquire it in its raw form for their minds to refine it and store it."

"You mean that all humans have the ability to refine and store Ether?" Miho asks and Mannheim nods.

"Yes. The only thing that most people can't do is to gather it, since this type of energy isn't present in our world," Mannheim says and then raises a finger. "Unless someone who can indeed gather it, stores it in an appropriate container.

"Then how does it work?"

"It is quite simple actually. The person has to only crush the container and the raw Ether contained within it will transfer into their body, get refined and then stored. Though since this is only a prototype, the energy is strong enough for only brief use, such as perform or block an attack, or heal moderate wounds. It also causes extreme exhaustion at the user, so I would recommend using it as a last resort," Mannheim explains and Miho nods.

"I understand. Is there anything else you wanted me for?" she asks, but Mannheim shakes his head.

"No."

"Ok. Then, do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions?"

"Sure."

"I want to know about the second generation Serums and what the line "P.B.A.P: None" in the documents means," Miho asks with a serious expression, which Mannheim reciprocates with one of his own.

"The second generation Serums are an upgraded version of the Serum used on you. In light of the massacre Serum Black and Serum White caused during the Starfall project, I decided to make a version that wouldn't kill its host if it went out of control. After several weeks of trial and error, I managed to make a test Serum that altered the test subject's DNA without the risks of destroying it, but it also resulted in the subject's power to be a lot more weaker. For example, you and Miss Odysseus are classified as Class-S users in the Institute, but Miss Yumika and Miss Ono are classified as Class-C. As you can understand, the power difference is quite huge. Also, this new Serum had the side effect of changing the color of the subject's irises permanently, unlike the temporary changes that happen in your appearance. There are also some other minor changes, but they aren't worth mentioning." Drinking the rest of his coffee, Mannheim puts the mug on the table and crosses his arms.

"About your second question, the line means Personality and Behavioral Alteration Progress," Mannheim says and Miho's body stiffens slightly, a detail that doesn't evade his gaze. "Simply put, it measures how much the user's personality and behavior change when they use their power, and if permanent, how much it has progressed since last time. After the incident in the underground lab where you lost control of your power, for every test subject's files I made sure to record any behavior or personality changes to make sure they wouldn't go berserk. But since the rest of the test subjects of Serum Black and Serum White died during the DNA alteration, I never gathered any data about it.

"How about the test subjects that used lower level Serums?" Miho asks.

"They never exhibited any behavior changes as drastic as yours. I'm certain it has some connection with how big your power potential is, but I have yet to find someone as strong as you to confirm it...except for Miss Odysseus that is, though as I have stated before, she is a rather special case," he answers.

"So that means that Kōrino and Kasai are safe, right?"

"Yes. This is also another advantage of the second generation Serums; they don't alter the personality of the user, which reminds me - I told this to your friends, but I should tell it to you too - the changes your power causes on your personality can be negated, given enough time and practice, but be aware that should you get more powerful, it will become increasingly more difficult to suppress them. So I suggest you prepare yourself, for you may do some things you might not like," he finishes his answer ominously, letting an eerie silence to fill the air.

 _Hisssss_

Hearing the door hissing, both turn to look at it. As it opens, the figure of a girl with black hair and green eyes enters inside the lab, looking around the room in amazement, until she spots Miho.

"Miho!" the girl calls and quickly walks up to her. "The Director called and said he wanted you and Odysseus to come to his office to talk about your next assignment. He has sent a vehicle to pick you up!"

"Eh? He didn't tell you what kind of assignment it was?" Miho asks, then turns to face Mannheim. "There are still some things I want to ask you about the Starfall project, so I'll come and talk to you later," she says then proceeds to exit the lab in search of Odysseus while asking Yuki about the room arrangement and if there is anything left to do other then the paperwork for the girls.

As the door closes and hisses, Mannheim turns to face his keyboard and presses the Enter button. Suddenly, a holographic screen made of Ether pops into view above the keyboard and Mannheim starts typing what looks like lines of code.

"I wonder if she'll ever learn about Blackout's involvement in Starfall project," he muses to himself as the sounds of buttons getting pressed fills the air. "How will she act when she learn that Miss Kadotani's sister was abducted by them? It certainly will be interesting," he chuckles slightly as he briefly stops typing to go and make more coffee to drink.

* * *

"So, what are you going to do with the money you won from the bet?" Annabelle asks as she picks up a cup of hot tea and takes a small sip.

"Well, I did promise Saori I'd buy something for her, so I guess they'll be spent on a necklace or something like that," Tyler answers from the other end of the small coffee table where he sits, with Annabelle opposite of him and Reiji to his left. "I still owe her that date I promised her too."

"Will you buy her a ring and propose to her?" Reiji snickers slightly and Tyler lightly slaps his shoulder.

"Shut up, I didn't even mentioned anything close to it. I just said the word ring and her mind instantly abandoned reality," Tyler answers and shakes his head slowly. "Though it ain't the first time I've seen it happening."

"How so?" Annabelle asks curiously. "Is it because of girls chasing you almost every day?"

"Almost. Back in the States, around 4 years ago I think it was, I was walking down the street, minding my own business, when I spotted a girl in front of me crouching and searching the pavement around her for something. By coincidence, I spotted what looked like a ring behind her, so I stooped down, picked it up, walked in front of her and presented it." Tyler stops and takes a deep breath. "I don't know what the fuck happened, but her face flushed like she was in heat and she tried to throw herself on me, mumbling incoherent things about marriage and family. Had to run two blocks until she got exhausted and stopped chasing me."

At this, Reiji snorts and rolls his eyes, while Annabelle nearly spits the tea she was sipping from her cup.

"What the heck, Tyler? Are you some kind of walking aphrodisiac?" Annabelle asks after gulping down the tea she had in her mouth.

"Hell if I know!" he says incredulously and throws his arms in the air for emphasis, before letting them to fall down. "The only thing I know is that my father had to go through things like these too."

"Then maybe it is something genetic?" Reiji suggests with a thoughtful expression. "Though in all honesty, this kind of thing only happens in novels."

"Yet here I am, having girls following me like I'm some kind of harem anime protagonist," he sighs loudly.

"At least you aren't a dense one," Reiji smirks.

"Let's change the subject to something else," Annabelle says. "What do you think will happen now that we are not working for Blackout?"

"We still are under Blackout's control; the only difference is that we don't have to meet that stupid monthly quota all mercenaries have to unless they are in an elite squad," Tyler says his own opinion, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "Honestly, I believe that something else is in the works here."

"Are you crafting another conspiracy theory?" Annabelle deadpans, but Tyler's serious expression barely changes.

"This time I'm sure about it. Have you noticed the two mercenaries that got transfered here with us?"

"You mean that couple that was assigned as guards for our base, right?" Reiji asks and Tyler nods.

"Yes. Back at the base, I heard rumors that the Director wanted to dispose them at first but later changed his mind because they have a child and another relative with them, so if they disappeared it would create a lot of suspicion."

"Are you serious right now?" Annabelle says slowly in a monotone voice, finding it really hard to believe Tyler. "What reason would the Director have to do something like this?" This time Reiji speaks up.

"Apparently, when the enemy HQ in Tokyo was captured, they were tasked with retrieving any intel they could find on the enemy's computers and one of them looked at some classified documents that contained sensitive information about Blackout's involvement in some shady things in the past, like a supposedly blacklisted experiment named Starfall project," Reiji finishes explaining and Annabelle stares at him with a thoughtful expression.

"This sounds like it came straight out of a fanfiction story, but if the rumors are true, then it would make a lot of sense," she says with a serious expression then picks up her cup to drink some tea, but notices it is empty. "Could you please go and refill it?" she asks a blonde girl with light purple eyes that stands next to her. Said girl wears a French maid costume colored in the classic colors of black and white, its skirt having black and white frills on its end and being long enough to just cover her crotch and a tiny part of her upper thighs. The girl also wears black stockings with garter bells and black Mary Jane shoes. Her long, silky, blond hair are braided in a French braid that drapes over her left shoulder and left breast. Despite the several scars that fill both of her arms and the exposed parts of her thighs, they do little to diminish her beauty that is further enhanced by the light blush that covers her cheeks.

"Come on Odysseus, you know the rules. Since I won the bet, you have to do whatever I want for a whole day," Annabelle says with a rather sweet smile on her face. Odysseus just gulps loudly and reaches with a trembling hand to grab the cup while using the other to hold her skirt pressed against her legs and cover as much of them as she can, which isn't that much.

"A-As you wish, m-m-milady," Odysseus stutters in embarrassment with a cute voice, which makes her seem even more adorable.

"Feeling a little breezy down there?" Tyler snickers like a troll, seeing Odysseus' trembling hand.

"S-Shut up, Tyler! I'm only doing this because Annabelle blackmailed me!" she shouts in an embarrassed voice, pressing her skirt even harder against her legs. Unbeknownst to her, Reiji fishes out his phone, snaps a picture of her and puts it back in his pocket in one fluid motion. After that, Odysseus quickly retreats back at the room's small kitchen to refill Annabelle's cup with more hot tea.

"And how did you blackmailed her?"

"I threatened to burn her porn collection if she backed out from the bet."

"I call bluff. You weren't going to burn it really, did you?"

"Odysseus said the same thing...until I took a lighter and moved towards where she keeps her stash."

Tyler sweats a little at that. "You can be quite scary some times, you know that?"

"Yes, but it is all basic intimidation. If she decides to go ham on my ass, I can't do jack shit to stop her."

"But we all know she ain't going to do something like that. The worst she'll ever do to you is throw an intense glare," Reiji says casually.

"That's true," Annabelle nods in agreement. "Anyway, isn't Odysseus cute with that costume!? I just want to glomp her and squeeze her as tight as I can!" she says dreamily with excitement, showing a rather rare side of her that the boys barely have seen these two years they have been with her.

"Annabelle being a lesbian has been confirmed," Tyler snickers.

"Shut up," Annabelle grumbles and kicks Tyler from under the coffee table. "This's just because you can't see how cute she is."

"Ouch," Tyler groans, rubbing the part on his left shin where he got kicked. "Well, excuse me for not falling head over heels for a psycho," he says and crosses his arms. "Besides, if I want to glomp someone, I have Saori."

"You are no fun, you know that?" Annabelle deadpans, then turns to face Reiji. "How about you, Reiji?"

"I prefer girls that behave in a more mature way and are more graceful than our dear commander," Reiji answers and Annabelle draws closer to him.

"That sounds interesting. Anyone that has caught your eye?" Annabelle asks him, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"I brought tea for everyone," Odysseus says as she gets out of the small kitchen with a tray that has four cups full of hot tea. Placing the tray on the coffee table, she takes a sit next to Annabelle.

"Good job Odysseus," Annabelle smiles and gently pats Odysseus' head, causing her to blush in embarrassment and lower her gaze down on the floor, avoiding eye contact with everyone. "You know what you have to say, don't you?"

"Th-Th-Thank you, m-milady," Odysseus stutters in a barely audible voice, her blush turning into a crimson red color.

"You actually enjoy it, don't you?" Tyler says casually as he grabs one of the cups that sit on the tray.

"Every minute of it," Annabelle grins slightly and turns to face Reiji. "Please continue."

"Hana," Reiji answers and Annabelle nods in understanding.

"Aha, she definitely covers your criteria. She is mature, elegant and can do flower arrangement, which if I remember correctly, is actually a lot more complex and difficult than it seems at first. Then again, it is a form of art, so I guess it shouldn't be that surprising."

"Seriously?" Tyler asks in surprise. "Is arranging a couple of flowers that big of a deal?"

"It even has certain, and somewhat unspoken, rules that everyone practicing flower arrangement must abide to. For example, the colours of some flowers are considered unlucky. Red flowers, which are used at funerals, are undesirable not only for that reason but also because red is supposed to suggest the red flames of a fire. Another example is the number of flowers used. An odd number of flowers is lucky, while even numbers are unlucky and therefore undesirable, and never used in flower arrangements. With the odd numbers one avoids symmetry and equal balance, which are actually seldom found in nature."

"Jesus Christ, the more you speak, the more I start believing flower arrangement is more of a science than art."

"It might as well be with how many things someone has to take into consideration when arranging them, but I digress. Reiji, have you tried spending more time with her?" she asks, but Reiji shakes his head.

"No. It is only recently that I got interested in her, so I haven't had the chance to spend more time with her. Also, I'd like to get to know her a bit more before pursuing a romantic relationship with her."

"I know it's irrelevant with our current conversation, but I really wanted to ask you Annabelle, where did you find that costume for Odysseus?" Tyler asks Annabelle.

"Remember the time when we searched an abandoned town for supplies...about four months ago, I think it was? Anyway, I found it inside one of the abandoned homes and decided to take it, though I made sure to hide it from the rest of you."

 _Knock-Knock_

Hearing a slight knocking coming from the door, everyone looks at it.

"Are we waiting anyone else?" Tyler asks and Annabelle shrugs.

"Maybe they have some business with us?" Annabelle says and turns to Odysseus, who is still gazing on the ground. "Would you be so kind as to go and answer the door?"

Odysseus immediately whips her head up to look at Annabelle with eyes full of terror. "No!" she yells. "It's bad enough I had to wear this stupid thing and be seen by all of you in such a state; I won't have anyone else see me like this!" she shouts in an embarrassed voice, her blush that had subsided somewhat flaring once more.

"Maybe you want to reconsider?" Annabelle asks as she slowly reveals a lighter from her jacket's right breast pocket.

Backed against the wall, Odysseus can't decide if her pride or her collection is more valuable to her, but thankfully Reiji comes to her rescue.

"I think we have teased her enough for now," he chuckles a little as he gets up and goes to answer the door. Opening it, she finds Miho and Yuki waiting in front of it.

"Good morning Reiji. Is Odysseus here?" Miho greets and asks Reiji.

"Good morning you two," Reiji greets them back. "Yes, she is. Please come in."

Entering the room, that it has the same room layout and furniture as the one back at Blackout, and closing the door behind them, both Miho and Yuki spot Odysseus, who is now burying her face in her hands, mumbling incomprehensible things.

"Uhm, who is she?" Miho asks as she and Yuki sit at the right side of the coffee table where there is free space. Miho's question instantly causes the boys to laugh, and even Annabelle cracks a slight grin. "Is there anything funny at what I said?"

"No, it's just that this girl is Odysseus," Annabelle answers.

"Eh?" both Miho and Yuki exclaim in surprise, causing Odysseus to moan in embarrassment. "Why is she dressed like that?"

"Remember the bet we placed between us? Since I won it, I had her dress in that outfit and act as my maid for the whole day."

"Oh..." Miho says, a bead of sweat rolling along the side of her face. "A-Anyway, I'm here because the Director called and asked for me and her to report to his office for our next assignment." This instantly shakes off of Odysseus any embarrassment she might have had till this point.

"Did he tell her what kind of assignment we need to expect?" she asks with a serious expression, but Miho shakes her head.

"No. He only told her that we should report to his office and that there'll be a vehicle coming to pick us up," Miho answers and Odysseus gets up.

"It might be something serious. Give me a minute to change and I'll-" she starts saying, but then feels a hand grabbing her left ankle. Looking down, she finds Annabelle **smiling** at her.

"There's no need for that, Elpida, you can go with the clothes you are wearing," she says with a sweet voice and causes Odysseus to get petrified.

"B-But-!" Odysseus tries to object, but Annabelle silences her by raising the lighter once more.

"Aaaaaaaargh! Mark my words Annabelle, I'll get you for this!" Odysseus shouts in frustration and storms out of the room.

"Don't you think this is a bit too much?" Miho asks.

"A little bit of shame never hurt anybody," Annabelle answers back. "Besides, she'll probably have forgotten about all of this by tomorrow."

"If you say so," Miho answers and stands up. "Then I'll take my leave. Have a nice day," she says and bows a little, followed by Yuki.

"Have a nice day too," Annabelle, Reiji and Tyler say. Closing the door behind her, she finds Odysseus leaning against the wall next to the door with a grumpy face.

"Are you sure you are going to be fine?" she asks and Odysseus sighs in defeat.

"I guess so. Just getting what I deserve," she mumbles quietly. "Let's just get going. The sooner we are done with this thing, the better," she grumbles and starts walking towards the staircase.

* * *

 **Blackout's Main Base**

 **Director's Office**

Inside his office, the Director is sitting behind his large desk, reading a couple of reports about some of the recent assignments Blackout has completed, which aren't that much if he has to be honest.

Bandits, which had been a major problem for the past two years, have completely disappeared. From what intel they managed to retrieve from the enemy HQ, it seems the Institute was actually supplying with weapons and obsolete tech bandit groups in order to keep both Blackout and the JSDF occupied so they could operate uninterrupted and prepare to fight both of them. Needless to say, it worked flawlessly. Blackout almost lost its head, so to speak, from the surprise attack on the main base, and whatever had been left of the JSDF after the earthquakes was completely wiped out. According to the retrieved intel, his contact, Chōno Ami, was captured in the last battle between them and was transported in an Institute's facility located somewhere in North Korea, another place with heavy Institute presence.

That being said, there are still a lot of stuff he has to do if he wants to rebuild Japan into a functioning nation, so he'll have to brush aside rescue missions for now. First things first, he'll need to secure resources, most specifically the lands the school carriers are controlling, since they have an abundance of them. All overall commanders have shown their willingness to perform a trade deal, which would have happened long ago, if it wasn't for the Institute's attack on the base. Second is the rebuilding of towns and infrastructure, as well as agriculture and industry. Third is the assimilation of the school carriers. Even if he doesn't want to believe it, he has to admit that these girls, the ones that do Senshadou at least, could easily pass as veteran mercenaries in Blackout just by looking at their performance on the field. They sure did showcase this in the battle against R.I.J.A., and when there are at least three Institute-controlled countries around you, you'll certainly need all the manpower you can get. He could ask for help from Blackout's branch in America, but these guys have become somewhat autonomous in the wake of the apocalypse, so he can't count on them.

Having finished reading the report, he puts his signature at its bottom and places it at a pile of papers that neatly sits at the right corner of his desk, then takes a mug that sits on the left side of the desk and sips some of the black coffee it contains.

Hearing the doors to his office open, he looks up from the next report he had grabbed and was about to read, and finds the two guards that stand as security outside of his office holding the doors open to let a woman enter, before closing them behind her.

"Please have a sit," the Director says and points at the two luxurious chairs that are placed in front of his desk.

The woman, who looks to be in her late 20s or early 30s, smiles at him and takes a sit on the left chair, carefully putting her long purple hair over her right shoulder so that they won't get caught between her back and the back of the chair. She wears a one piece, violet dress that matches the color of her eyes, as well as white sandals. To say that she is just beautiful would be an understatement, as her beauty seems like it is the divine work of the gods.

"It has been quite some time, has it not, Director?" the woman asks in a voice so sweet that it is like tasting honey.

"Indeed it has been, Angel," the Director says with a rather neutral expression. Opening one of the desk's drawers, he procures a piece of paper and hands it to Angel.

"Hmm, what is this?" she asks and quickly scans the contents of the paper. "Isn't this a little too much?" she asks and waves the paper a little.

"Thanks to your little request to capture the enemy headquarters, I lost a considerable amount of good people and assets, so I expect you to provide a compensation for the losses," he answers.

Angel simply crosses her legs and leans back on the chair. "Is that so?"

"Yes. You were off the grid for two months and a couple hours before the attack on Tokyo you send an email requesting that Blackout captures the Institute's HQ."

"I provide you with resources, you do what I tell you to; That was the deal," Angel tells and leans a little bit forward. "You might not want to accept it, but I'm the one pulling your strings," she says with a smile, but the Director remains unfazed by this.

"And I'm working on cutting them," he answers back, then seeps some more coffee from his mug.

"I'll be waiting for it," she giggles slightly. "Anyway, what have I missed these two months? I know about the Institute and the Ether Force, as well as the two girls that have magic, but what I want to know is what you are going to do now. Consider this one of my requests."

"You know a lot of things, don't you?" the Director asks with suspicion, but Angel simply waves a finger at him playfully.

"A lady never reveals her secrets~," she winks at him, but the Director once again remains unfazed by her charms.

"Very well. This last month there has been rumors that Institute spies have infiltrated our branch in America, so I'll be sending the two girls that can use Ether as bait to draw them out."

"And how do you know this will work?"

"I had some of the personnel spread rumors that girls that can use _"magic"_ will be transfered in America as part of reinforcements to help defend the branch if a war erupts between the factions that control the different parts of America. While no one will believe the rumors about the magic part, I'm sure the Institute spies will take notice and act."

"Hahaha!" the woman laughs loudly. "Cunning like a fox!" she exclaims. "Oh, it seems your guests have arrived," she says as she folds the piece of paper the Director handed her and stands up.

"I'll swing by some time again; Maybe we can chat a little more," she says and starts walking towards the doors, but a couple steps before reaching them, they open and in come Miho and Odysseus.

"Good morning ladies" she greets them sweetly as she exits the office, with the guards closing the doors behind her. Both girls turn to look at the now closed doors, Miho with a curious expression as to who this woman was, and Odysseus with one of suspicion.

"Who was that woman?" Odysseus immediately asks with a frown, pointing at the closed doors. "She looked really suspicious."

"An acquaintance of mine," the Director waves his hand dismissively, but then notices what kind of clothes Odysseus is wearing. "I know we are a lot more lax in rules than most of the pre-apocalyptic PMCs, but don't you think this is a bit too much even for you?"

"It's not like I chose to wear this, you know…" Odysseus grumbles under her breath, pressing her skirt against her legs. "I just made a bet with Annabelle and she made me wear this thing for the rest of the day."

"Director," Miho says and snaps a salute. "May I ask why you requested our presence?"

"I wanted to inform you about your next assignment," he says and waves Miho to lower her salute, and so she does. "Please have a seat," he gestures at the two luxurious seats in front of his desk and the girls comply, with Miho sitting on the left chair and Odysseus on the right.

"So, what do we have to do? Raid bandit bases? Protect some precious cargo? World conquest?" Odysseus starts blabbing. "And why are you so nice to us so suddenly?" she asks and gestures at the chair she is sitting.

"As the Directors of an autonomous branch of Blackout, I'm only showing proper respect. You are not here as Blackout's mercenaries; You are here as business partners," he says and both girls look at him in surprise.

"Business partners?" Miho asks and the Director nods.

"Think of this as a mandatory contract between Blackout and the Ether Force."

"And what's this job about? If it's something incredulous, such as fighting the Institute in another continent-", Odysseus starts saying but the Director raises his hand to signal her to stop talking.

"It's not something like that…almost," he says and pulls a map from one of the desk's drawers. "Do you know anything about the current situation in the USA?"

Both girls shake their heads, so he puts the map on top of the desk. It is a map of the pre-apocalyptic USA, but it is divided in four colored zones.

"After the earthquakes, USA got divided among four factions." He taps the yellow colored zone first. "One of the factions is called 'West Coast Coalition'. It covers all of the west coast along with the states of Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Idaho. Next faction is the 'Independent State of Texas'," he says and taps at the red colored zone that is covering the bottom middle of the US. "They are essentially the state of Texas that broke off the US after the earthquakes and decided to occupy the states of New Mexico, Oklahoma and Louisiana." He then taps at the Eastern coast of the US, in a green colored zone. "Next faction is the 'State Alliance' that spans from the east coast all the way to the states of Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi. And last but not least," he taps at the purple colored zone that covers the remaining states, "is the 'Holy Trinity State'."

"What the hell, this last one sounds like a faction run by religious fanatics," Odysseus blurts out.

"Why are you telling us all of this?" Miho asks, not understanding what the state in which the US currently is has to do with their assignment.

"Blackout, except from Japan, also has a branch in America, which operates mainly inside West Coast Coalition's borders, but recently I've heard rumors that spies sent from the Institute have infiltrated it."

"So you are sending us there as bait," Odysseus makes a guess and the Director nods.

"Yes. Since it seems that relationships between all factions are slowly disintegrating, a war between them is inevitable. You two and your teams will be transfered as reinforcements to the American branch to defend it in the unlikely event that the enemy ever reaches the city of Los Angeles where the branch's HQ is located. Your job is to draw out the spies and either capture them or kill them."

"How much time will we spend there?"

"Expect to remain there for at least two months, maybe even more. It really depends on when the Institute decides to make its move."

"Sheesh, talk about a long mission," Odysseus sighs and leans back on her chair, looking up at the ceiling. "How are we even supposed to travel there?"

"You'll be flown to the US by a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III which will refuel in Hawaii."

Upon hearing the name of the airplane, Odysseus' eyes nearly pop out of their sockets.

"Where the fuck do you keep an airplane like that and how can you even maintain it!?" she asks incredulously.

"My company had it before the whole apocalypse happened," he answers, ignoring the last part about the plane's maintenance. "Now, about your payment-"

"Uhm, actually, I have a request to make," Miho interrupts the Director. Standing from her chair, she slightly bows and speaks up. "Instead of paying us with money, could you please search for my team's parents? They should still be somewhere in Japan except for Yukari's, who are most likely either in China or Australia."

"I don't mind, but you should know that locating them will probably take more than two months, at least a year," he says in a neutral voice. "And in Yukari's case, we may be unable to extract them from whatever Institute base they got transfered." He then turns to look at Odysseus. "Also, you aren't going alone in this assignment, so you can't decide what the payment will be by yourself."

"I don't care," Odysseus says bluntly. "Me and my team get a free trip in the US, who cares about the money!" she laughs but then develops a serious expression. "We'll still get paid actual money there, no?"

"Yes. Since you are transferring branches, they'll cover your living expenses for as long as you remain there."

"Ok, that's all I care for."

"Then I believe we have reached an agreement," he announces. "I'll get the papers ready, since this is an official contract; You'll be leaving in one week from today."

"Thank you very much!" Miho exclaims cheerfully, bowing even more.

"And with this out of the way," he says and procures from his desk's drawers a blue cube and two envelopes, one plain and one that has floral patterns adorning its corners. "These here are for you."

He hands Miho the blue cube and the plain envelope, while he hands Odysseus the other one. "If you need to call them, use your base's satellite phone. Also, I'll need both of you to bring your tanks here for retrofitting, at the latest this evening. Since you'll be facing modern armor most likely in the event that you end up in the front lines somehow, your tanks will need to be upgraded to at least stand a chance against an Abrams. Now get going; I still have work to do."

And with this both girls exit the office, the guards behind them closing the doors. While they are walking on the hallway that connects the fourth floor of the base with the main staircase, Miho gazes intently on the blue cube, trying to decipher what it is exactly. It seems to have a slot at one of its sides that seems to have a recess where some kind of object is supposed to fit, probably to open the cube. She doesn't know why, but the shape of the recess reminds her of something familiar.

"This is interesting," Odysseus says and Miho turns to face her.

"What is it?" she asks and Odysseus turns to look at her.

"Now why would Darjeeling send a letter here?" she asks rhetorically, waving the envelope a little.

"Darjeeling?" Miho asks in surprise.

"Yep! This envelope is from Tea Garden and most likely is addressed to Annabelle," Odysseus says, gazing at the envelope once more. "I am really curious, but I'll wait till we get back to base to open it, since it might be only for Annabelle and not me."

* * *

 **Five minutes later**

 **Returning to Ether Force's Base**

Inside a military Humvee painted an olive green color, both Miho and Odysseus sit at the back seats of it as the vehicle leisurely travels back to their base, which had been built fairly away from Blackout's. Currently Odysseus is glaring daggers at the Humvee's driver through the rear-view mirror, which he is painfully aware of.

"Next time you look at me, I'll gouge out your eyes with a spoon and feed them to the crows," Odysseus growls at the man quietly, causing him to lock his gaze in front, not daring to turn his head even a little to the right. Seeing that the man is keen on not risking the safety of his eyes, she turns her attention at the decorated envelope, flipping it upside-down constantly, wandering if she should open it now or not.

"Can you believe he is sending as at the other side of the Pacific?" Odysseus leisurely asks Miho, trying to strike a conversation with her in order to suppress her ever-increasing curiosity about the contents of her envelope.

"I'm more curious as to why he is sending only us to act as reinforcements for the branch in the US," Miho answers slowly, still holding the blue cube with her right hand, rotating it this way and that so that she can scan every side of it. "Logically speaking, if there is going to be a war, two squads will barely make any difference in defending it, even if it is a cover-up story to mask our real purpose there."

"You think there is another reason he would send us specifically?" Odysseus asks, lazily gazing out of her side door's window.

"Yes," Miho nods in agreement and places the cube between her thighs so it won't go rolling on the vehicle's floor from all the shaking, then turns to look at Odysseus. "I believe it has to do something with their involvement in the Starfall Project."

Hearing this, Odysseus turns to look at Miho with interest.

"You mean it ain't just some baseless rumor?" she asks, remembering Tyler's brief conspiracy theory.

"You've heard something about it?" Miho asks in surprise, not expecting Odysseus of all people to know something about it.

"Tyler was talking about a rumor that the two mercenaries that transfered to our branch as base guards had seen some classified documents that hinted at Blackout's involvement with a shady project and Reiji said it was supposedly named Project Srarfall," Odysseus says and her eyes widen a little as her mind starts connecting the dots. "No way… Could Blackout have participated in some way in Project Starfall? But why would a blacklisted program the government was running would need mercenaries?"

"I only know that they were involved in Project Starfall because I overheard the transferred mercenaries talking about it," Miho says. "The woman was yelling at the man how he shouldn't have been reading these classified documents they recovered from the enemy's server, so I guess the rumor checks out."

"But then, wouldn't Mannheim know about this?" Odysseus asks. "If I remember correctly, he did work at the project."

"I think he knows, but refuses to tell us. It might be at his best interest to remain silent about it for now."

"Then do you have any idea why they would need a PMC in the experiments?"

"I have a couple of ideas. Maybe they wanted to make sure that no one would steal their research, or they were used as security to make sure all the essential personnel would be safe," she says and pauses, taking a deep breath. "The last one is a stretch, but they might have used Blackout as a third party to supply them with test subjects."

"You've got to be kidding…" Odysseus says in shock. Noticing that the driver is looking at Miho through the rear-view mirror, she activates her powers and a single tendril of light blue energy shoots forward and stops mere millimeters away from his neck.

"You speak to anyone about what you've heard and what you'll hear, and I'll make sure no one will ever find yours and your family's bodies," she threatens the driver, who gulps in response, cold sweat covering his whole body.

"This is a really huge stretch even for me. While it is fisible, there are way too many variables for them to kidnap people without getting noticed," Odysseus says with a pondering expression, then turns to face Miho. "Do you remember anything from your time there? Also, how come your sister didn't know about it?"

"Sadly I don't remember anything apart from the time I lost control over my powers. Also, it was summer when the experiments were being conducted, so my sister was at a training camp."

"A training camp? Like a summer camp, but instead it is for Senshadou?" Odysseus asks and Miho nods. "Sheesh, your mother is really strict about the whole Senshadou thing."

"It's only because she grew up in a very strict environment herself and her position as the heiress of the family's name didn't allow her to have that many freedoms. She is actually very caring; It's just that…she has some difficulty expressing it," Miho immediately says to defend her mother.

"Ooh, so her circumstances are somewhat similar to Annabelle's," Odysseus says and lifts a finger. "Because Annabelle too grew up in a very strict environment and her status as nobility really limited her options of what she could do and how she could act, especially when in public. I guess it's no wonder then why your mother is so serious all the time."

"But Annabelle isn't always serious or strict with you," Miho points out at which Odysseus just laughs sheepishly.

"Yeah, well…I may or may not have to do something with this. When I first met her, she was so serious and always concerned about how her actions would influence her image. But over time, she somewhat got rid of this 'habit', though she still does it in some cases even today." Odysseus says, then claps her hands together. "Anyway, I want to ask you something about your power."

"What is it?" Miho asks.

"How do you create objects with your power and how do you enchant them? Because I have tried a couple of times and it ends up with me lying on the ground without any energy and the object that I was trying to make nowhere to be found."

"It is pretty simple, actually," Miho says and activates her powers, then raises her right hand so that her open palm faces the ceiling of the Humvee. "First of all, you create the object of your preference out of energy, sort of like a blueprint of it." A few millimeters above her palm an orb of ruby red energy gathers and starts hovering, moving up and down like it is submerged in water. "Then you think of what material you want for this object to be made of and it should start changing."

Indeed, the orb of energy starts solidifying into a shiny gray metal, and after it has become completely solid, it falls on Miho's palm.

"This ball for example is made of steel. As you might have noticed, the bigger the object you want to make and the stronger the material you want it to be made of is, the more time it will take to be completed."

"What about the enchantments?"

"If you want to give them special effects, you just have to think of them after thinking the material." After putting the steel ball down at the seat next to her, Miho makes another orb that immediately starts solidifying but at a slower rate than the previous one.

"Is it me, or does the orb solidifies a lot slower than the previous?" Odysseus points at the orb and Miho nods.

"You are correct. Because I'm putting an effect on it, it takes more time to create it. The more complex an effect is and the bigger the number of effects, the more time you'll need to create your object."

Upon solidifying, instead of falling into her open palm, the ball falls into the vehicle's ceiling like someone has reversed gravity for it.

"So cool!" Odysseus says as she picks up the ball and lets it fall on the ceiling yet again. "So you reversed gravity on it?"

"Yes. Though since I didn't have enough energy to make this effect permanent, I made it a temporary one," she says as the ball suddenly falls at the floor of the Humvee, rolling under the driver's seat. "Why don't you try making one?"

"I'll give it a go." Raising her hand just like Miho, Odysseus closes her eyes and imagines the object she wants to create. A few millimeters above her open palm an orb of blue Ether energy forms, which quickly gets the shape of an icosahedron that is no bigger than her thumb's nail.

"Ah, this is so difficult," she mutters as she grimaces, trying her best to maintain the rather complex shape the orb of Ether has taken. Thinking of the material and the effect sheswants her object to have, the energy starts solidifying into a transparent crystal, beginning from the center and very slowly expanding towards its surface. Miho can see how Odysseus is straining herself to make this crystal ball, as she notices a few drops of sweat forming on her face and rolling down to her chin. After the energy completely solidifies, the crystal ball falls into Odysseus' palm and starts glowing in a variety of bright and dark shades of colors from the visible spectrum.

"Fucking finally! I'll never try this thing again, that's for sure!" she sighs in relief, wiping some of the sweat that has formed in her forehead with her uniform's right sleeve. Picking it with her right hand and holding it with her thumb and index finger, she scans it slowly, looking at the glowing colors that seem to dance inside the ball.

"Do you mind holding it for a bit, Miho?" she asks and hands it to Miho, who takes it and raises it on her eye level, gazing at it with curiosity.

"What is it exactly?" she asks as the crystal ball starts dimly glowing a subtle orange color. "Oh, it changed color!" Miho says in surprise, growing even more curious at the crystal ball. In response, the color of it changes to a brighter shade of orange, as well as starts glowing brighter.

"Yep. This crystal ball has the ability to show its holder's feelings and how strong they are!" Odysseus grandly announces, puffing her chest proudly. "For example, the bright orange color means you are curious. And the more bright the glow is, the more intense the feeling is."

"Amazing," Miho says, looking at the crystal ball with astonishment. Handing it back to Odysseus, the ball goes back at displaying a variety of colors, both bright and dark. "Why is the ball acting like this when you hold it?" Miho asks, though she already has a faint idea.

"It's because of this," Odysseus smiles and taps the side of her head. "Just because I act normal, it doesn't mean I am. The scars I carry will never heal sadly, however much time passes. And I'm not talking about the physical ones." This time she pats her left arm with her right hand's index finger.

"Ahem," the driver coughs loudly to get the girls' attention. "I'm sorry for interrupting your conversation, but…could you please get this thing away from my neck?" he asks as he nods his head towards the tendril that hovers millimeters away from his neck.

"Oh, sorry about that," Odysseus says and retracts her tendril, before deactivating her power. "At any rate, thanks to you, I can now make a ton of things!" she says to Miho with excitement.

"You don't need to thank me, I'm just glad I helped you," Miho says sheepishly, then notices Odysseus opening the decorated envelop and retrieving the letter it has inside it.

"Didn't you say you would open this with Annabelle?"

"Yes, but I'm really curious to see what it is written on it," Odysseus grins as she shows Miho the crystal, a bright orange color shining brightly.

* * *

 **Ten minutes later**

 **Ether Force's Main Base**

 **R &D Labs**

 _"Unknown entity identified as Elpida Papaioannou. Access denied."_

"The fuck you mean 'access denied'!?" Odysseus yells at the lab's door and presses the touchpad it has on its side again, letting the laser beams scan her once more.

 _"Unknown entity identified as Elpida Papaioannou. Access denied."_

"Come on, why the fuck can't I enter the damn lab!?" she shouts in frustration, pressing the touchpad and getting scanned yet again, but to no avail.

 _"Unknown entity identified as Elpida Papaioannou. Access denied. Multiple entry attempts detected. Entering siege mode."_

The door hisses once and the touchpad gets retracted inside the wall, while the led lights turn off. Seeing that she isn't allowed to enter the lab for unknown reasons, she does what any normal person would do if they were in her position.

Use brute force and rip the door to pieces.

Activating her power, she uses all eight of her tendrils to open the door like a tin can, ripping it of its frame and gently putting it against the wall next to it. Entering the lab with a very annoyed face, she starts looking around for Mannheim.

"Mannheim, where the fuck are you!? I have a bone to pick with you!" she yells loudly as she scans the room for the scientist, then spots a cylindrical devise that has a rainbow crystal inside it. Making her way to the table this devise is, she picks the cylinder and starts gazing at the crystal with her heterochromic eyes. "So pretty…" she says in awe. Even her tendrils are swaying slowly left and right, as if expressing the calmness Odysseus is feeling right now.

"I would appreciate it if you would not touch my stuff," Mannheim says as he approaches Odysseus and takes the cylinder out of her hands.

"Ah! Hey, give it back!" Odysseus shouts in surprise, trying to grab the cylinder with one of her tendrils, but Mannheim merely teleport at the other side of her, evading the strike easily.

"I'd also appreciate it if you didn't use your power in here," Mannheim says as he puts the cylinder back to its original place.

"It's not my fault, alright? Your stupid door wouldn't let me enter," she grumbles as she deactivates her power and crosses her hands over her chest.

"Is that why you decided to force your way in here?" he asks as he points at the missing door.

"Pretty much," she says casually, waving her hand dismissively. "You see, I have some business with you."

"And what that business might be?" he asks as he walks up to the now empty door frame and presses his left hand against it. "[Repair]."

"I want you to do me a favor," she says as she looks at the door frame whichwis glowing a subtle apple green color, the space where the door once was getting filled with energy which quickly solidifies to form the destroyed door. "Jesus Christ, is there anything you can't do with Ether?" she asks rhetorically.

"Create living things and alter time" Mannheim answers as he approaches her once more. "Now then, what do you want me to do?"

Odysseus retrieves a small vial that contains a white liquid from one of her costume's pockets and lifts it up for Mannheim to get a good look at it.

"Recognize this?" she grins mischievously as Mannheim instantly squints his eyes at the vial.

"This is a vial of Serum White. Where did you get this?" he demands, taking an intimidating step towards her.

"Hey, don't shoot the messenger!" Odysseus immediately says, taking a step backwards and raising her hands in a surrendering fashion. "I stole it during the experiments that were carried out after the Reaper program."

"Scheiße! Your country shouldn't have working Serums! The ones I sold at the governments were supposed to be defective!" Mannheim swears and grabs the vial out of Odysseus' hand and scans it carefully to confirm it is indeed a genuine and not a fake.

"You mean they shouldn't have worked?" Odysseus asks, too scared to even move a single millimeter in fear Mannheim might attack her.

"Exactly! I wouldn't be so foolish as to sell a possible WMD to these idiots! Which begs the question, how the hell did they acquire a genuine sample?" he says in frustration, trying to think of a possible way for the governments to have acquired working Serum samples.

"I don't really care about your problem, I just want you to modify the Serum so that it can short-circuit and overcharge my power," Odysseus says slowly.

"Why?" Mannheim asks her with a curious tone, brushing aside for the time being the fact that the countries around the globe have somehow acquired genuine Serum samples.

"To become more powerful of course," she says. "From what I heard from Miho about her battle with you, it seems we can sort of _'evolve'_ if we get overcharged with lots of Ether."

"Hmm, that sounds like an interesting experiment. I will see what I can do," he says and puts the vial in his lab's right pocket.

"Great! I'll need it to be ready in five days the latest."

"It should be ready by then. Though do you mind if I ask you something?"

"Sure, go ahead."

"Why are you wearing a maid costume? Is this some kind of a cosplay fetish you have?» Mannheim inquires and Odysseus' face immediately explodes from embarrassment, since she had somewhat forgotten she was wearing a French maid costume.

"What!? Of course not! It's just that Annabelle made me wear this for the whole day since she won the bet!" she yells and immediately bolts out of the lab.

Mannheim says nothing in response and returns back to the table where his futuristic computer is. To think that someone from the project would steal the Serums and sell them at the countries that had been part of the collaboration effort so many years ago, it is unacceptable for him. Maybe he'll contact Azarin and ask him if he can find anything about Russia having any of his Serum samples and from whom they acquired them. But for now, he has other plans, mainly a side project he has been working on for the past month.

"It's actually very convinient that Miss Odysseus had a sample of Serum White. This means I can make a lot more progress," he hums as he turns the computer on and the same green holographic screen made of Ether pops into view. Typing a few things into the computer, he stops to gaze at what the screen reads.

 _New variables accepted…_

 _Recalculating results, please wait…_

 _Serum Progress percentage:_

 _Isuzu Hana… 4.17% complete_

 _Takebe Saori… 3.86% complete_

 _Akiyama Yukari… 5.92% complete_

 _Reizei Mako… 3.74% complete_

 ** _Estimated time of completion: 2 Years_**

* * *

 **A/N: Finally done with this chapter too! I expect this whole reprieve for the girls will be around for about two to three more chapters, then it's of to the good ol' US of A! And rewriting more of my story's first chapters. Anyway, as always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**


	31. Chapter 31: Invitation

**The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 31: Invitation**

* * *

"Hey, Annabelle, I have something to show you!" Odysseus yells as she enters the room, looking around for her friend. "Where is everyone?" she asks as she scans the interior for Annabelle or the boys, but finds none.

"Annabelle?" she shouts once more.

"I'm in the bathroom!" Annabelle's voice echoes from behind the bathroom door, so Odysseus quickly hops towards it.

"Stop playing with your pussy for a moment, I need to show you something," Odysseus snickers loudly like a troll, knocking at the door a couple of times. The door suddenly opens, hitting her in the face with so much force that it nearly breaks her nose, before closing and getting locked.

"Next time I hear you talking like that, I'll grind your face on the floor till you bleed!" Annabelle roars.

"What the fuck, Annabelle!?" Odysseus's muffled voice echoes from behind her left hand with which she has cupped her red nose and mouth. "Learn to take a joke, will ya!?"

"Learn to control your language first! I don't want to hear you speaking like that ever again, got it?" Annabelle berates Odysseus, who rolls her eyes from left to right.

"Fine, fine, whatever you say, _Mom_..." Odysseus responds back to her sarcastically, walking till her bed and sitting on its edge.

"With how much I need to take care of you, you might as well call me your mother," Annabelle responds back just as sarcastically, if not more. Odysseus says nothing in response, merely looking at the opened envelope that she has in her right hand.

"Do you know where the guys have gone?" Odysseus asks, letting herself fall on the bed on her back and looking up in the ceiling.

"I think Tyler went to see how Saori's doing and I have no idea where Reiji is," Annabelle says back.

Hearing the lock in the bathroom click, Odysseus lifts herself from her bed, using her hands to support her body. Opening the door, Annabelle exits the bathroom and makes her way towards Odysseus, who, upon seeing her friend, widens her eyes in surprise.

"Is something the matter?" Annabelle asks with a confused expression. Odysseus doesn't answer at first, but opts to just gaze at Annabelle in awe.

"The clothes you are wearing..." Odysseus says slowly and Annabelle looks at them. She is wearing a cut-out shoulder top colored white, a knife-pleated skirt that goes just below her knees and is colored lipstick red, and her black combat boots. "Oh, I had a little accident and spilled some tea on my uniform, so I had to change clothes-"

"You are so cute!" Odysseus yells in a high-pitched voice, bolting from her bed, hugging Annabelle, lifting her up in the air and squeezing the hell out of her. "I just want to squeeze you till you explode!"

"Unless you stop hugging me so tight, I'll really explode!" Annabelle says in a strained voice, being barely able to even breath. But Odysseus ignores her pleas and starts spinning her around and around, telling her just how cute and adorable she is. "Elpida, if you keep spinning like that you'll-" Annabelle tries to warn her, but it is too late. Odysseus trips over her bed's leg and falls on the floor on her back, with Annabelle falling on top of her and using her as a cushion.

"Agh...my back hurts," Odysseus groans as she raises her head and nearly headbutts Annabelle, whose face is millimeters away from her own. "Hey there cutie. Enjoying your time?"

"Don't make this more awkward than it already is," Annabelle says and sits up on Odysseus, then pats her belly. "But I have to say, you've gained a few pounds here and there; you'd make for a nice pillow"

"Of course," Odysseus responds back, then pats Annabelle's belly. "But you seem to have remained the same."

"It's because I don't eat too many sweets, unlike you."

"Small details."

"So, what did you want to show me?" Annabelle asks and Odysseus points at her left, where her bed is.

"There should be an opened envelope on it," she says and Annabelle stretches herself to grab it. Taking the envelope, she immediately recognizes the floral pattern that adores its corners.

"Is this from Tea Garden?" she asks perplexed, wondering why they would send them a letter.

"Yep. It seems that Assam has finally confessed her feelings towards you," Odysseus snickers, so Annabelle just punches lightly her head.

"Very funny, Odysseus," Annabelle says to her as she retrieves and unfolds the letter that rests within the envelope.

 _Dear Annabelle,_

 _Tea Garden is organizing a little party for its members and I thought it would be lovely if you could attend it. The party will be held at July 1st, around seven in the evening. I'll be waiting for your response._

 _Most sincerely,_

 _Darjeeling_

 _"_ So it's an invitation from Darjeeling," Annabelle says with a thoughtful expression. "I wonder why it's addressed only to me."

"Probably because it is Tea Garden business. Like it or not, you are a member of it."

"But I never accepted their invitation to join and I haven't been given a soul name," Annabelle informs Odysseus as she folds the letter and puts it back inside the envelope.

"They seem to think otherwise," Odysseus says with a smirk.

"Well, if you can't come, I won't go," Annabelle says and Odysseus shrugs.

"Whatever you want. Though you can call them and ask Darjeeling if I can come. I'm sure she'll be fine with it," Odysseus suggests and Annabelle looks at her with a confused expression.

"Call her? How exactly will I do this?" Annabelle slightly frowns.

"Call her from the satellite phone," Odysseus says with a straight face. "Some times you can be really dumb, you know that?"

Annabelle flicks her forehead slightly. "You are the dumb one, Odysseus," she says back at her friend. "Want me to start listing all the times you have done or said something stupid?"

Odysseus says nothing, silently covering the part in her forehead where Annabelle flicked her, and gazing off to her left, trying to avoid any eye contact.

"Didn't think so," Annabelle says with a slight smirk. "The reason I asked is because I don't think St. Gloriana has a satellite phone. And even if they have, we don't know their number."

"But!" Odysseus says sharply, lifting a finger to Annabelle's face. A few silent moments pass, before Odysseus finally speaks. "I have no idea how we can. Boop," she says the last word with a silly voice and pokes Annabelle's nose.

"And here I hoped you'd say something befitting of your age," Annabelle sighs and slowly shakes her head. "Then again, you have the mentality of a small child, so I'm not that surprised."

"I don't have the mentality of a small child! I can be an exemplary adult when I want to be!" she closes her eyes and nods smugly.

"Then let's put it to the test," Annabelle grins slightly and firmly grabs Odysseus from the sides of her torso.

"No...Annabelle..." Odysseus warns her slowly, slowly moving her hands to grab Annabelle's and remove them from her. "If you do it, I'll get really mad at you."

Despite her warning, Annabelle merely tilts her head on her left and makes an innocent smile, greatly unnerving Odysseus.

"Annabelle, don't do it! I know that smile of yours really well and-AHAHAHAHA!" Odysseus starts howling with laughter as Annabelle starts tickling her, the blonde desperately trying to flail out of her grasp and stop her hands from torturing her any further.

"No, Annabelle, please stop! Ahahahaha, I beg you, please stop!" she pleads with tears running from her eyes.

Stopping momentarily to let Odysseus catch her breath, seeing as her face has become red from all the laughing, Annabelle places her hands on the ground that is next to Odysseus' body in order to support herself.

"I really wish things could go back to as they were before the earthquakes," Annabelle says with a bitter smile, looking at the ground next to her. "Even if life wasn't that nice back then, it certainly was better than now."

"Yeah... Because fighting in a warzone and getting backstabbed by your own country is definitely better than now..." Odysseus says with as much sarcasm as she can muster, even rolling her eyes from right to left. "But I get what you mean."

"If I'm honest, I really worry about my father," Annabelle admits slowly, her expression full of sadness and bitterness. "I still hate that jerk for what he made me go through, but in the end...I just can't stop worrying about him. I really hope he is doing fine."

"Hey, Annabelle," Odysseus says slowly, so Annabelle turns to look at the blonde. "Have you ever thought how things would have been if the world didn't go to complete and utter shit?"

The bitterness with which Odysseus says these words completely surprise Annabelle, who didn't expect for Odysseus to suddenly go from being all happy and cheerful to being sad and bitter, though the next set of words does give her a clue why.

"I just sometimes wonder, what if these damn earthquakes never happened? What if we could somehow turn back time or revert all the damage that has been done since then? If we did that...maybe...just maybe Mizuki could still be alive." As Odysseus speaks, her voice becomes more and more high-pitched, as well as quieter, until it can be heard no more. Annabelle picks Odysseus' upper body up so that she sits on the floor and hugs her tightly.

"We both know there wasn't anything we could have done," Annabelle says softly, but this doesn't seem to make Odysseus feel any better.

 _Knock-Knock_

"Hey, is anyone in there?" Tyler's voice is heard from behind the room's entrance door. "Hello?"

"Coming!" Annabelle shouts back. Letting Odysseus, she gets up from her, then helps her friend up from the ground. "Look what you did to the uniform, it's all wrinkly now," she complains as she pats it down.

"Well, I'm only going to be wearing it for a couple more hours, so I don't see where the problem is," Odysseus says back, then gropes Annabelle's breasts. "Hmm, you've certainly grown quite a bit since last time," she says with a straight face, like what she's doing is a normal occurrence.

"Would you like for me to punch you or to slap you?" Annabelle asks with a straight face too, clenching both of her fists in preparation for the beating she is about to give Odysseus.

"I'll choose the slapping. It sounds more...kinky," Odysseus says with a sultry smile.

"Good, good," Annabelle nods in agreement and raises her fist. "Then you don't mind if I punch you a couple of times first, do you?" she says and unleashes a series of punches that Odysseus expertly dodges.

"Bitch, I was trained for this shit!" Odysseus exclaims smugly, diving behind Annabelle to avoid a kick this time. "Nana-nanana, you can't touch me~," she mocks the redhead in a childish manner, then dashes towards the door and opens it.

"Hey boys, long time no see!" she greets Reiji and Tyler, then notices that Saori is also with them. "I see Saori has tagged along with you," she says and pinches Tyler's left cheek. "Did you finally had-mmphmhmhp?"

"Why do I get this sense of Deja Vu I wonder..." Tyler deadpans as he covers Odysseus' mouth just in time.

"Had what?" Saori asks innocently.

"Don't mind her, she's just speaking without thinking," Tyler answers her as Annabelle grabs Odysseus by the back of her neck and drags her inside the small kitchen.

"Make yourselves at home," she says and so the boys and Saori enter the room, sitting around the small coffee table.

"So, why are you guys here?" Odysseus asks as she sits at the free side of the coffee table that is opposite from Reiji, having managed to escape Annabelle's grasp.

"Miho called everyone to gather at the base's garage, most likely to appoint to each team a tank and to inform them about our next assignment," Saori says.

"From what we heard, we are going to America," Reiji says as Annabelle comes with a tray that has cups of tea.

"We are going in the US? That's news to me," Annabelle says surprised, then turns to look at Odysseus. "Care to explain?"

"Since everyone is here, I'll tell you what the Director said to us." She waits for Annabelle to sit down and take a cup before starting the explanation of their mission.

"Basically the US has been torn apart into four factions that control its lands. In one of these factions operates Blackout's American branch, and he believes that spies from our dear old Institute have infiltrated it."

"These guys again?" Tyler groans. "Wasn't China and Australia enough for them?"

"For all we know, they could have a strong presence all around the world," Annabelle says her own opinion.

"With the kind of technology, abundance of recources and manpower they have, it would be hard not to," Reiji agrees with Annabelle.

"Whatever the case, we will be sent there to draw them out," Odysseus continues, but Tyler interrupts her.

"And how will we do that?"

"Easy," Odysseus grins and points at herself. "Me and Miho are going to be baits!"

"Because you can use Ether?" Annabelle asks and Odysseus nods. "Yep. Even if we don't actively use our powers, I'm sure these guys will notice. And when they approach us, we simply kill them."

"How much time will we spend there?" Reiji asks.

"At least two months, probably more. I'll tell you the finer details later; I'm too bored to explain everything right now." She turns to look at Tyler and Saori, looking at them with a mischievous smile. "That being said, the America's branch HQ is in Los Angeles. Guess what Saori, you are going to meet Tyler's parents!"

"What!?" both Saori and Tyler yell at the same time, Saori out of embarrassment and Tyler out of disbelief. Odysseus just falls to the ground howling with laughter, Reiji is smirking at Tyler and Annabelle has buried her face in the palms of her hands, trying her best to stifle her urge to laugh.

"This isn't a joke, is it?" Tyler demands and Odysseus just lifts herself for only a moment to shake her head, before falling back to the floor again. "Great..."

"Wh-Why are you all laughing?" Saori asks, confused as to why something like this would be fun, except for their somewhat exaggerated reactions.

"You'll know when we go over to LA," Odysseus answers in a somewhat mysterious tone, still lying on the floor giggling. Taking some deep breaths, she sits up and points at Annabelle. "Before I forget, Annabelle got an invitation from Darjeeling to visit them, so she, and probably me, will not be around here tomorrow and the day after. And with that, I think we are finished here." Odysseus stands up and rushes towards the door.

"See you at the garage!" her voice trails off as she exits the room, sprinting towards the underground garage to look at the new tanks before all the boring talking starts.

"Wasn't she supposed to be all embarrassed and flustered because of the uniform you made her wear?" Tyler asks Annabelle as he stands up, then helps Saori stand up too.

"She most likely got bored of being embarrassed," Annabelle giggles lightly.

"She is known for getting bored pretty quickly," Reiji says as he exits the room, followed by Tyler and Saori.

Annabelle takes the tray and the half-empty cups of tea to the kitchen and as she is about to exit the room, she notices that there is a number at the back of Darjeeling's letter, so she picks it up to inspect it.

"Could it be..." she wonders aloud for a second, before folding the letter and putting it in the single pocket her skirt has, before exiting the room and closing the door behind her.

* * *

Humming the Panzerlied tune while walking down the main staircase, Miho is in rather high spirits.

She, along with her team and Yuki, minus Saori, are making their way towards the underground garage where Miho has called for all the girls to gather.

"You are in rather high spirits, Miho. Did something happen?" Hana asks in a pleasant voice with a smile.

"Mhm!" Miho nods at Hana. "My sister sent me a letter today, inviting me to spend a few days in Kuromorimine. She even wrote a number in the letter to call her."

"That sounds nice."

"A number?" both Yukari and Yuki, who had been glaring at each other discreetly, turn and ask Miho at the same time.

"Aren't telephone lines supposed to be destroyed or inoperable?" Yukari asks.

"When Blackout first freed the schools, they gave a satellite phone to each one in order to keep in contact with them," Miho explains.

"It seems the Director was planning something with the schools since the beginning," Mako says in her usual sleepy voice.

"Like what? Recruit them?" Yuki asks half-jockingly, but when the rest of the girls gaze at her silently with somewhat worried faces, she adopts an expression of seriousness too. "Oh..."

"From a strategic point of view, it would be foolish not to use people who could almost be compared to war veterans, especially when you know your enemy outclasses you in both technology and numbers."

"But, would they even agree to this? However you cut it, the girls will most likely decline the offer to join Blackout and it's not like the Director can order his forces to just force them to."

Reaching the ground floor, Yuki points at the left of the long hallway, where a black line with a white arrow inside it runs along the floor.

"If we follow this line, it will guide us to the underground garage," she says and so the girls start following the line.

"Couldn't Blackout somehow convince the girls to join?" Hana asks.

"He could strike a deal with them," Miho speaks up. "If they joined Blackout, he could provide them with resources they need."

"Like food, clothing and other essential items, or even spare parts for the tanks," Mako adds in.

"Or even give them equipment like tanks and weapons." Yuki's eyes widen slowly as a terrifying thought crosses her mind. "And if he can successfully assimilate them, he'll have the biggest pool of manpower that currently exists in Japan under his thumb."

"Don't you think this is going a little too far?" Yukari questions Yuki's statement. "Even if the carriers do get assimilated into Blackout, that doesn't mean every single person on them is going to instantly enlist as a mercenary."

"Whatever the case may be in the future, we have bigger problems right now we need to solve," Miho speaks up. "We still don't now where over half of the school carriers are, at least two of the countries surrounding Japan are under the Institute's control, and the chances of them launching a big invasion to capture us and destroy Blackout is very high. Best case scenario is we find the rest of the school ships and the Institute never attacks us, but things never go as we expect them to. We all learned this in Senshadou."

"I just hope we can find the rest of the schools," Yukari mumbles quietly.

"Given how much time has passed since the earthquakes, it is highly unlikely they are somewhere in Japan, or they would have made contact with the already existing ones," Mako says in a neutral tone. "They most likely are in some other country that is near Japan."

"I'm sure they are fine. We just need to be patient," Hana speaks in a graceful voice. "Wouldn't you agree, Miho?"

Miho nods in agreement with a smile. "Mhm. I'm sure we will find them sooner or later."

Reaching a metallic door in which the black line leads, Miho opens it to reveal a flight of stairs that leads down to another metallic door. Descending the stairs and opening the door, the girls find themselves in a huge underground space that seems to run along the entire length of the building. On one side of this space are neatly placed in a line several tanks that Miho has never seen, and amongst them is also their own Panzer IV. On the far end of this space, a gate with a ramp that leads on ground level is constructed, with the sun's midday light entering through it and supplementing on the lighting of the garage which the fluorescent bulbs that are placed on the ceiling provide.

All around these new tanks the girls of the Ooarai teams stand, looking at them with curiosity and amazement. There is also a certain blonde girl that seems to have gotten stuck upside-down in one of the hatches from one of these tanks, wildly flailing her legs and body in an attempt to get unstuck while her friends sit around her and laugh, because the skirt of her costume is really short and can't cover her exposed butt and underwear.

Upon seeing the vehicles, Yukari immediately bolts over to them, eyes sparkling and with an expression of pure amazement plastered on her face, looking them from every possible angle.

"Yuki, are these the tanks Blackout sent?" Miho asks and Yuki nods.

"Yes. The Director said that they weren't of any use to him, so he sent them here," she answers.

"They look rather powerful, so why would Blackout give them to us?" Mako wonders aloud, trying to think for a reason behind Blackout's sudden "generosity".

"They look so big...and strong..." Hana whispers under her breath, gazing at a tank that has two 130mm cannons crammed at the same turret. "I wonder how it'd feel if I fired them."

"Girls, gather up here for a moment!" Miho speaks loudly as she stops at the middle of the underground garage.

The girls gather around Miho, with Hana and Mako joining them. Only Yuki remains by her side.

"First of all, has everyone been assigned a room?" Miho asks the girls, who answer back with a chorus of "Yes!".

"Alright," Miho nods to herself, then starts speaking. "Welcome to the Ether Force. As of today, you'll be working here in the Ether Force as mercenaries, more specifically as tank crews. Sadly, this was the only way for you to stay here. Yes, Erwin?" Miho asks, seeing Erwin raising her hand.

"What will our duties be?" she asks.

"Patrol missions, scouting places, escorting precious cargo to a city, raiding bases, acting as a defense force for a settlement and things like that," Miho answers Erwin's question, who seems content with it as she lowers her hand.

"Uhm...Commander..." Aya raises her hand and asks nervously. "Uhh... Will we have to kill people?" This immediately dumps the mood for everyone.

In all honesty, Miho doesn't know how to answer this question. Or rather, she does know the answer; it's just that it ain't a pretty one. Should she say that they won't to have to worry about such a possibility, although sooner or later they'll come across a moment where they'll be forced to? Or should she say that they'll most likely have to?

"Most likely...yes," she says with a solemn tone, greatly unnerving the girls, except for the Turtle team. "But we will make sure that it doesn't come to this," she quickly continues, somewhat calming them down.

"From whom will be taking orders?" Momo asks in a clear voice.

"This, uhh...PMC I guess, is run by three people. Me, Yuki whom you all know," Miho points at Yuki who is standing on her right, "And Odysseus..." Miho trails off and sighs, looking at the still stuck girl flailing her legs, while Annabelle is pulling her from the waist in a bid to get her unstuck.

"Dammit Odysseus, how much weight have you put on?" Annabelle groans as she tries to pull her with all her might.

"I haven't put on any weight!" Odysseus' muffled cries come from inside the tank, flailing her legs in protest. "My damn chest is just too big for this hatch!"

"Then how in the name of God and every Saint that exists did you get stuck in the first place!? And stop flailing your legs, you are going to hit me!"

"Since I couldn't get inside the tank normally, because my breasts were hitting the edge of the hatch, I decided to get inside head first and it worked," Odysseus starts her rather long explanation at how she got stuck. "Until I saw I didn't have enough space to crawl inside and when I tried to back out I found my breasts hitting the edge of the hatch again and not letting me out!"

Everyone keeps looking at the two girls with expressions of disbelief, confusion, or embarrassment, thanks to Odysseus' underwear being visible to everyone in all its striped glory. Tyler and Reiji simply keep smirking at the antics of their commander.

"Wait-wait-wait, I got an idea!" Odysseus says loudly, so Annabelle stops pulling her, turning to face Miho.

"Give us a minute," she says quickly, before turning back to Odysseus. "Whatever you have in mind, just do it quickly."

"I'm ready! Try pulling me now!" Odysseus says and Annabelle grabs her by the waist and with a groan, she pulls as hard as she can. Odysseus pops out of the hatch and lands on the ground on her two feet, swaying left and right from the dizziness she feels. Her head is as red as a beetroot, thanks to her blood rushing to her head because she was upside down for so long, but after a few seconds it returns to its normal coloration.

"Never doing this again," she says shaking her head, then remembers she needs to introduce herself to the girls. "Crap, need to to introduce myself."

Turning around, she immediately sprints towards Miho and the others.

"Wait you damn idiot!" Annabelle yells at Odysseus, but she simply ignores her, skidding to a stop on Miho's left.

"So, my name is Odysseus, real name is Elpida Papaioannou and I'm - why is everyone looking away from me in embarrassment and some of you clutch your chests?" she asks raising a brow, when she suddenly feels a bit breezy on her upper body. Looking down, she finds the upper part of her torso completely naked and visible to the girls. Raising her right hand, she finds herself holding a pink bra.

"Oh..." she says in realization. "OK...I still don't understand why everyone is embarrassed. Aren't we all girls? Is this the first time you are seeing boobs?" she deadpans and grabs her breasts from their undersides, gently raising them. This makes some of the girls to gasp in embarrassment and their faces to get even redder." Seriously? Does this happen when you enter a public bath or a hot spring together? You just all get embarrassed? Or do you enter with your swimsuits?"

"Just get dressed and stop standing half-naked in front of them!" Annabelle fumes as she approaches her quickly. While Odysseus gets dressed, both Tyler and Reiji, who have been sitting at the back of the crowd, are gazing at the opposite direction of their commander.

"I never thought I'd see her do something like that," Tyler says in a low voice at Reiji, careful not to be heard by the rest of the girls. "How could she forget she had removed her bra and the top of her costume?"

"We are speaking about a girl that forgets what she eats for breakfast," Reiji says in a voice loud enough for only Tyler to hear him.

"Yet she can remember thirty-four different hentai videos she had seen three years ago," Tyler sighs and shakes her head. "This girl...she is worse than some guys I knew back in the US."

"Indeed, but that's one of the traits that characterizes her," Reiji says. "It wouldn't be Odysseus if she wasn't that perverted."

"I guess you are right," Tyler says back. "But I have to admit, the uniform and this costume do her no justice. Did you see how big they were?"

"Careful, Tyler. If Saori hears you, you are good as dead," Reiji warns his friend, though his look tells Tyler that he agrees with his statement.

"Did you see it?" a slightly stuttering and embarrassed voice asks and Tyler freezes in place. Sweat starts forming on his face, not daring to turn around.

Tyler merely looks at Reiji from the corner of his right eye, with his friend smirking victoriously and mouthing, "You jinxed it."

"If I told you I didn't, would you believe me?" he asks slowly and turns around, looking down on an embarrassed Saori who is covering her chest with her arms.

"Y-You saw, didn't you?" she asks in a barely audible voice, causing Tyler to sigh.

"Well, unfortunately, I don't have the reflexes or the speed of a god to turn around the moment I saw her popping out of the hatch she was stuck. Please don't tell me you are angry over this."

"N-No, that's not it..." she whispers and lowers her head, trying to hide her blushing face from Tyler. "Uhm...Tyler... Do you like them bigger?"

Tyler immediately adopts a thousand-yard stare, feeling as if his next words will decide whether he'll keep living on the realm of the mortals or he'll pass on in the afterlife. "Wh-Why are you asking, Saori?"

"J-Just answer me!" she whispers embarrassed, causing Tyler to start sweating even more, while Reiji is simply trying not to burst in laughter, quite enjoying his friend's precarious position.

While Tyler is trying to navigate through the minefield Saori has set upon him with a single question, Odysseus finally wears her bra and top of her costume. Coughing once to get the girls' attention, she introduces herself again.

"Ahem! As i said before, my name is Elpida Papaioannou, but I prefer being called Odysseus. Some of you also might now me as the girl who has been pulling pranks on you with Scythe for the past two or three weeks - I don't remember exactly - and I'm also one of the Directors, which means you'll be taking orders from me, too. If you are wondering why an idiot like me has been given a position with so much power, is because of two reasons," she says and raises two fingers in front of her.

"Reason number one is that I can use Ether, like Miho and Yuki. Number two is because I have been in a real war, meaning I have a lot of experience on what to do when the shit hit the fan. Anyway, it'll be an honor working alongside you and I hope we can all become friends." She then lowers her hand and starts walking towards one of the new tanks to look at it, hopefully not getting stuck in a hatch this time, with Annabelle following her to make sure she won't.

"A-Anyway," Miho starts talking, an awkward smile forming on her face.

"One last thing I need to tell you. Mine and Odysseus' teams have been hired from Blackout for a mission in the US and we will be leaving in a week."

The girls immediately start whispering amongst themselves, but after half a minute and Momo's shouting, the girls shimmer down and Miho continues." We will be gone for a long time, at least two months, so until we come back I want all of you to listen to Yuki, Anzu, Momo and Yuzu, OK?"

"Yes," the girls respond, a little bit disheartened at the fact that Miho and her team will have to leave for a few months.

"With that out of the way, I called you all here to assign to each team one of the new tanks we received." Miho says and turns to Yuki. "Did Blackout send any information about the tanks?" she asks her, but Yuki shakes her head.

"If you are looking for info on them, I have them."

Turning her head towards the voice, Miho finds Mannheim standing on the door from which she had previously entered the underground garage, holding a stack of papers on his right hand. Mannheim makes his way towards the crowd of girls, who are eyeing him suspiciously, and stops where Odysseus was standing mere moments ago.

"For the past few days I had been sneaking on Blackout's tank garage and compiling data on these tanks, so I believe I can help you with their assignment on each team," he informs Miho as he hands her the papers that contain various information about the tanks.

"And why would you want to help us?" Momo immediately says in suspicion, glaring at the middle-aged scientist.

"Miss Kawashima, unless you have been living under a rock for the past month, I now work for this organization, therefore I have an obligation to see that it develops and prospers. So, unless you want to die out in a battlefield because you didn't know your tank and its workings well enough, I suggest you keep your mouth shut," Mannheim answers back with a condescending look.

"Please stop, both of you," Miho sighs lightly, then turns to look at Mannheim. "Is there anything special with the tanks?"

"Yes. Their engines have been modified to run with Ether. Moreover, certain components or types of ammunition require Ether to work." This totally shocks and surprises the girls. "Also, I have worked in some of these components during my time in the Institute, so I can provide extra information on them."

"That's good to know," Miho nods, then turns to look at the papers. "Is there a reason why the tanks don't have a name?" she asks the scientist while she briefly scans them to get a general idea of their type and performance.

"Since all of these are prototype tanks, I thought that leaving the names blank for the girls to name them would be fine," he answers back.

"I see." After glancing at the papers and taking a general idea of what each tank can do, she looks up to the girls. "Girls, I'll now start assigning a tank to each team, so when I call your team's name, please step up to take the paper of your tank."

"Yes," the girls respond.

"First, Hippo team," Miho announces, so Erwin, Caesar, Saemonza and Oryou step up in front of Miho. "Here's your paper. It is the first tank from the left," Miho says and points at the first tank. Its chassis is around seven meters long and has wheels instead of treads (three on each side), greatly resembling that of the LAV-300 APC. On top of the chassis is a rather big turret that houses a smoothbore 120mm cannon and a coaxial 7.62mm machinegun. At the front of the turret are also 2X6 smoke dischargers, while in front of the cupola is a .50 caliber machinegun.

"It has a fully traversible turret and a powerful cannon, but its armor is pretty thin. It also has an OCU, whatever that means," Miho says, but Mannheim interjects.

"It means 'Optical Camouflage Unit'. It is a cloaking device, though it's an experimental model, so it can make the tank invisible only when it is not moving."

The girls of Hippo team nod in silence, then walk away towards the tank to get a better look at it.

"The long-sought turreted tank destroyer has finally fallen on our hands," Erwin mumbles under her breath.

"Though it is kinda weird for a tank to have wheels," Oryou points out.

"Or that it can become invisible when it's not moving," Caesar adds in.

"This could be useful for ambushes," Saemonza says and the rest nod in agreement.

"Next, Rabbit team," Miho says and six girls step in front of her. "Your tank is the fourth one," Miho points at said tank and hands Azusa the corresponding paper. The tank is huge, looking like an inflated M1A1 Abrams, thanks to its turret housing two 130mm cannons. At the sides of the turret also hang on metal supports two belt fed, remote controlled M134 miniguns. The supports on the sides of the turret from which the two miniguns hang seem to be able to fold on the roof of the turret in order to allow the tank to pass through small streets. Though with how big this tank is, it's highly unlikely it will be able to squeeze through such narrow places.

"Your tank has very good armor, a hybrid APS and two very powerful cannons, but I suspect it will be very slow in both speed and traverse speed thanks to its weight." She then turns to Mannheim. "Anything special about this tank?"

"Except for the hybrid APS and that its cannons can fire indipendently from one another, no."

"Uhm, excuse me, Miss Nishizumi, but what is an APS?" Azusa asks cluelessly.

"It means 'Active Protection System'!" Yukari immediately says, not losing a chance to dish out her impressive military knowledge, especially when it comes to tanks. "It is a countermeasure used against ATGMs, also known as 'Anti-Tank Guided Missiles'. It comes in two setups, known as 'hard kill' and 'soft kill'. The hard kill is-"

"Yukari," Miho says and Yukari immediately stops talking.

"I'm really sorry, Miss Nishizumi, just got caught up in the moment," she apologizes, smiling sheepishly and scratching the back of her neck.

"At any rate, you can go check it out and familiarize yourselves with it if you want."

"Ok," the girls from the Rabbit team answer and walk towards their tank.

"Leopon Team," she says and forward step four girls. "Your tank will be the third one." Giving them their paper, she points at a big tank that is armed with an 120mm cannon and a 12.7mm coaxial HMG (Heavy Machine Gun). Its hull resembles the one the T-14 Armata has, but the turret is of a peculiar design. Angled in the font like that of a Challenger, at its sides are placed six half-balls, three on each side, their size being as big as a human's head. "Your tank is fairly armored and has a rather strong 120mm cannon. In the paper it says it has automated repair drones."

"Repair drones?" the four girls ask in confusion so Mannheim steps in to inform them about them.

"Yes. They have a rather advanced AI my friend Azarin spent quite some time writing," he says and snaps his fingers. Instantly, the six balls in the turret jettison outwards and fly to Mannheim, calmly hovering around him, rotating in a clockwise direction. Suddenly, all six balls develop a vertical rectangle that shines a white color brightly, and several tools unfold from their bottoms. All the girls awe in amazement at the drones as they look around in curiosity, trying to identify their new masters. "As you can see, they are indeed sentient, lacking only emotions," he says and pushes one of the drones quite hard, causing the drone to wobble a few times. It then turns around and produces a series of beeping sounds. Its vertical rectangle flashes in red briefly and it even uses its electrical screwdriver to express its anger while another one its trying to push it away from Mannheim, which makes some of the girls to giggle. Snapping his fingers, all six drones return to their stations at the sides of the tank's turret and shut down.

"Seems Azarin programmed some emotions after all. Anyway, they can be really useful when you want to repair things, especially when in battle. Just remember that they use Ether, so they can do a lot of things you may think are impossible."

The girls nod in understanding, before walking towards their tank.

"OK. Next team is Anteater," Miho announces and the trio of gamers steps in front of her and receive their tank's paper. "Your tank is the second one," she says and points at a tank that looks like a Panther in the hull, though a little smaller and its turret is shaped like an egg lying on its side. From the front of the turret protrudes the barrel of an 105mm cannon, while on both sides, at the rear of the turret, smoke dischargers are installed. "It is armed with an 105mm cannon, so I don't expect for your tank to be able to penetrate any heavy armor from the front, neither its armor is strong enough to tank hits from a high-caliber cannon. It also has 2X8 smoke dischargers at the sides of its turret and an...experimental shield?" she says slowly, unsure if what she had read moments before was true.

"Yes. I worked on this project myself," Mannheim says and pauses for a split second, before continuing. "Think of the shield as a force field that coats the exterior of the tank and will stop any incoming projectiles. If I remember correctly, it needs about an hour to recharge fully, though under the heat of a battle you should consider that it is not recharging. Also, depending on the size and potential energy that the projectile has, your shield will fall differently. The bigger the potential energy of the projectile that hits you, the more energy it will lose."

The girls of the Anteater team nod in response and go towards their tank, chatting about how this shield reminds them of an HP bar from videogames they have played.

"Next one is Mallard team," Miho says and in front of her step Sodoko, Gomoyo and Pazomi.

"Your orders, Commander?" Sodoko asks and snaps a salute, mimicked by Gomoyo and Pazomi.

"Y-You don't have to salute!" Miho says quickly with a slightly flustered face, so the girls lower their hands. "Anyway, your tank is the seventh one on the line." Miho points at the seventh tank, which is surprisingly identical to the one Leopon Team got assigned, but instead of balls at the side of the turret, it has six holes at the sides of the turret's roof, three on each side. "Your tank is identical to the one Leopon was assigned, but instead of repair drones, you have six missile launchers at the turret."

"The missiles launched are about eighty centimeters long and have a diameter of forty centimeters. Their effective range is about a kilometer, if I remember correctly, and their firing style is similar to that of a Javelin missile, meaning that they will go up to a certain height, fly towards the target and strike it from above," Mannheim adds for clarification purposes on how the weapon works." The warhead is encased Ether, so they should be powerful enough to go through anything; even buildings if needed."

"Your tank is outfitted with an autoloading mechanism for both weapons, but the missiles need a separate gunner to designate targets for them," Miho informs the girls after glimpsing the notes the paper has, before handing it to Sodoko. "You should go and familiarize yourselves with it."

"Yes, Commander," Sodoko says and all three girls snap a salute, then walk towards their assigned tank.

"Duck team," Miho continues as the members of the disbanded volleyball club step forward. "Your tank is the sixth one," Miho points at a tank which has a hull similar to Hippo's one, but somewhat smaller and shorter in height. It's turret has a 30mm autocannon, an 1X4 smoke charger at its left side, while on the right side is a missile launcher, connected to the turret with a rectangular piece of steel that has the same length and height as the launcher. "Your tank is like Hippo Team's, having wheels instead of tracks and very thin armor. It also has a 30mm autocannon that has a magazine of 20 shells and an ATGM launcher that uses specialized ammunition."

"The missiles have an initial velocity of about two hundred meters per second, but after three seconds they accelerate at one thousand meters per second," Mannheim informs the girls. "Keep that in mind when you target enemies with them."

Miho hands them the tank's paper and the girls go to check it out.

"And the remaining tank is for us, I guess," Anzu lazily says as she, Momo and Yuzu step in front of Miho.

"Yes. It's the one that looks like a Jagdpanzer IV," she says and points at the final tank of the new ones that indeed looks like a Jagdpanzer IV, only slightly larger and more slick in design. "Your tank has an 105mm cannon that can fire specialized EMP shells," Miho continues.

"The shells will detonate upon impact and create an electromagnetic pulse to disable the electronics of the target for several seconds. And unlike the other specialized ammunition your friends need, yours is created inside the gun's breech by changing the already loaded shell using Ether," Mannheim informs them while Miho gives them the tank's paper.

While Yuzu, and surprisingly Anzu, nod in response, Momo just squints her eyes in suspicion, trying to discern Mannheim's true motives behind his help. And with that, the trio walks away towards their tank to check it out.

Miho sighs in response as her friends gather around her. "Now that this is over and done with, Mako," Miho says and turns to her sleepy friend. "I need you to take the Panzer IV in Blackout; the Director wants to upgrade them for our upcoming assignment."

"Roger," Mako says and makes her way to the tank.

"Before you leave, I want to talk to you about the ammunition, Miss Nishizumi," Mannheim speaks up and the girls turn to look at him.

"You can take care of that too?" Miho asks casually, somewhat expecting it.

"Yes. Though there might not be a steady supply of them for a few months," he answers and disappears from sight.

"What did he mean by that?" Yuki wonders aloud.

"Maybe he is working on something?" Hana suggests, while Yukari has gone back to tank sightseeing.

 _*Vroooom*_

Hearing a sound that clearly belongs to a tank engine, everyone turns around just in time to see a black tank passing besides them with a speed of at least 40km/h and a voice shouting from the driver's seat something about having to go fast. Behind it follows the Panzer IV with a more moderate speed of about 15 km/h, with Mako being partially out of the driver's hatch to have a better view. Both tanks pass through the gate and go up the ramp, before disappearing from sight. Meanwhile, the gate starts closing, two metallic doors sliding from left and right towards each other.

"Hey, Miho!" Annabelle shouts as she jogs to Miho from where the Cerberus was parked. "Do you know if the school carriers have any sat phones?" she asks as she stops in front of her.

"Yes. After they were freed from enemy control, Blackout installed one on each ship. I guess you need to contact Darjeeling?"

"How did you know?" she asks in surprise.

"Odysseus mentioned that the letter was from Tea Garden and that Darjeeling had invited you at a tea party they are having," Miho answers back.

"I see. Then you don't mind if I use it for a little, do you?" Annabelle asks and Miho shakes her head.

"Not at all. I also need to use it to contact my sister; I got a letter from her."

"That's nice," Annabelle says with a smile.

"Hey," Reiji waves at the girls as she approaches them.

"Where's Tyler?" Annabelle asks him as he stops next to her.

"He went with Saori for a stroll," he says and starts looking around. "Where's Odysseus?"

"Had to go and deliver our tank at Blackout. Said they'd upgrade it for our upcoming assignment," she answers him. "Why you ask?"

"Cause you have one of her marks on your right wrist," he responds and points at the top of Annabelle's right wrist, where a small circle rotates, similar to the one Miho had on her back during her battle with the blonde girl.

"Ah, yes. Odysseus told me she didn't want to waste half an hour from her life driving back, so she put a mark on me to teleport herself and Mako back to base," she says.

"She can teleport other people too?" Yuki asks slowly, raising an eyebrow.

"That's what she claims. Said she tried it with someone's pet from Blackout. How true is that, I have no idea," Annabelle shrugs.

"Let's get going," Miho says and the girls start walking towards the staircase that leads to the building's main hallway.

"Want to tag along?" Annabelle asks Reiji.

"Sure. If Odysseus is to appear, there's bound to be some fun," he answers to Annabelle, both of them walking a tad bit quickly to catch up with the girls.

Walking up the stairs, all of them start making their way to the Directors' office, backtracking their previous route. Though having walked not more than twenty meters from the staircase that leads to the underground garage, Yuki stops walking, in her face etched an expression like she suddenly remembered something.

"Aww, dammit! I forgot about the paint Blackout sent to draw camouflages on the tanks!" she groans, covering part of her face with her left hand and shaking it slightly. "Keep going, I'll find you at the office," she sighs and turns around, sprinting back to the underground garage to tell the girls about it and show them where the paint is.

The girls do as she tells them and continue to the office. Going up the main staircase till the second floor and taking a left at the floor's hallway, the finally make it to the office, which is located at the end of said hallway.

"That's it?" Annabelle asks upon seeing the simple wooden door that leads to the office, with only the words 'Directors' Office' glued on it with shiny metallic letters.

"What did you expect?" Reiji asks with slight amusement.

"Well, maybe a more stylish door, or an intricate frame for it," Annabelle answers, scanning the plain door. "Even in Blackout, the Director's office has double doors and a pair of guards."

"Sometimes simplicity can have its own beauty."

"I guess so."

Opening the door and entering, Miho finds herself inside a large room, almost as big as the Director's back in Blackout's main base. A red carpet covers the whole floor, while on the wall opossite from them a huge window pane has replaced most of it, allowing for the sun's rays to shine within the room. On the sides opposite and next to the one the door is, there are three wooden desks, one for each Director. On the one opposite from them, a satellite phone sits neatly at the right side, while on every desk there are various desk accessories, like pen cups, file sorters and other things like these. Several file cabinets stand at the corners of the room, while a rather intricate chandelier hangs from the ceiling.

"Does this fit your fancy?" Reiji asks Annabelle as they all enter the room and start looking it all around with curiosity.

"It could be better," she says, an expression of heavy thought and concentration etched on her face. "The chandelier could have had a pattern, like blooming flowers. The carpet could have been more firm; it feels too soft on the feet. The desks could have been from a more expensive wood and the walls are too plain and white. Maybe a different color and a painting or two would do the trick."

"You have pretty high standards, don't you?"

"Of course. I'm nobility after all."

"I thought you hated being referred as one though?" Reiji asks confused, raising an eyebrow.

"Don't get me wrong, I absolutely despise that title and it makes me want to vomit knowing that I'll never be able to get rid of it, but I'll use it if it can give me an advantage," Annabelle responds.

"So, in order to justify your picky nature you used your past as a reason."

"Well, growing up with having everything and always of top quality tends to spoil you a lot, but as you said before, simplicity has a beauty of its own, so I don't mind that much."

"Hah...Hah."

A panting Yuki enters the room, leaning at the door's frame, trying to catch her breath.

"Are you okay?" Miho asks as Yuki straightens herself up and takes a deep breath.

"I'm fine. It's just that I had to move the buckets with the paint for the girls to start drawing camouflages and then I ran all the way here," she answers.

"Didn't the others help?" Annabelle asks Yuki.

"They helped, but they were too many buckets and I was kinda in a hurry."

"Is Yukari still in the garage?" Miho asks.

"Yes. Last time I checked, she was taking pictures of the tanks."

"Well, I'm sure she'll come here once she has satiated her curiosity," Miho smiles and moves towards the desk which sits in front of the window pane. Sitting on the luxurious swivel chair, she starts patting her pockets for her sister's letter that has the satellite phone number of Kuromorimine.

"Did I leave it in my room?" she wonders aloud as she seems to not be able to find it, still checking her pockets in case she somehow missed it.

 _*Thump*_

Looking at the center of the room, the girls and Reiji find Odysseus standing on the soft, red carpet, while she holds Mako over her head with one of her tentacles.

"Guess who's back!" she says and strikes a pose like a magical girl that has just finished her transformation. Meanwhile Mako just looks around confused, blinking a few times.

"We really did teleport," she notes as Odysseus puts her down on the floor.

"Please stop posing like a twelve-year-old," Annabelle sighs, then facepalms as she sees Odysseus deactivating her powers and immediately lying down on the carpet.

"What the hell are you doing..." she deadpans, while Reiji is chuckling and the rest of the girls slightly sweatdrop at this.

"This carpet is so soft and fluffy!" Odysseus says cheerfully and starts rolling on the carpet. "I think I'll-Gah!" she gasps as Annabelle pins her on the ground with her left foot, firmly pressing it against her waist. "Fine, fine, I get it, so stop trying to crush my back!"

Annabelle merely huffs and releases Odysseus, who painfully stands up and starts rubbing her back.

"Annabelle, you can use the phone first if you want; it seems I forgot my sister's letter at my room," Miho says and stands up from the swivel chair. "I'll be back shortly."

And with this, Miho exits the room to go and retrieve Maho's letter from her room.

"Ha! See Annabelle!? I told you there was a way to contact Darjeeling!" Odysseus points at Annabelle triumphantly and laughs.

"The only thing you did was to poke my nose," Annabelle immediately shuts down Odysseus. Sitting behind the desk on the swivel chair, she moves the phone in front of her and retrieves Darjeeling's letter from the only pocket her skirt has at its left side. Unfolding it and picking the phone's handset, she dials the number that is written at the back of the letter and then waits for the phone to establish a connection with the satellite first and then with St. Gloriana's phone.

 _"Tuuun...Tuuun...Tuuun...Click. Hello?"_

"Hello, Darjeeling. It's Annabelle," Annabelle says cheerfully on the phone, glad to hear Darjeeling's voice.

 _"Ah, Annabelle! What a pleasant surprise. How have you been?"_

"Hi Darjeeling!" Odysseus shouts towards the phone, causing Annabelle to shush her and Darjeeling to giggle a little.

 _"It seems Elpida is as cheerful as always."_

"Yeah, meaning that I have to be wary of her in case she tries to do anything stupid. Other than that, we have been fine this past month. How have you and the girls been?" she asks Darjeeling. In the meantime, Odysseus scoots close to Annabelle in order to be able to hear Darjeeling too.

 _"We have been doing fine, too. In fact, bandit sightings seem to have plummeted to almost non-existent. While that means we won't be getting attacked anymore, we also can't make a lot of money because of that. The nearby towns and settlements ask less and less escorts for their trading caravans, since they don't get attacked anymore. At any rate, I believe you called me because of my letter, correct?"_

"Yes, because I wanted to ask a few questions," Annabelle says, the smile on her face slowly fading.

"Firstly, why did you invite me in Tea Garden's party? I know you had given me an invitation when I first came in St. Gloriana, but I never accepted it, neither did I receive a soul name."

Annabelle can hear Darjeeling sigh slightly, then coughing once.

" _Ahem. As you know, the members of Tea Garden have a gathering once per month where they all gather together to drink tea, eat cakes and converse with each other. Since the members found out you are still alive, they decided to make a party instead of their usual gathering and entrusted me with writing an invitation to you. I tried explaining to them that since you aren't a member, you couldn't attend it, so they said that an exception could be made, or that this invitation was for you to join Tea Garden."_

"Talk about clingy... I bet you have your own fan club, Annabelle, like Tyler has one back in Blackout," Odysseus teases Annabelle, who sighs and puts her left hand on the handset's microphone, then lowers it to speak to Odysseus.

"Please don't say things like that, this is no laughing matter," Annabelle sighs, then gets back on the phone.

"OK. I'll tell you right now, Darjeeling, but unless Odysseus can come too, I won't attend the little party these girls are throwing for me," she says, her smile completely gone from her face.

 _"If she wants to, I can invite her too."_

"Won't the members object?" Annabelle asks.

" _They already invited a non-member to their gathering, so objecting to my decision at inviting another non-member would be hypocritical of them."_

"That's good. Then, will we have to wear something formal for the occasion?"

 _"Yes, but the school uniforms are acceptable. We can provide you with one when you come in the carrier."_

"I'll stick with my job's uniform, so don't get one for me," Odysseus immediately says and looks at Annabelle with a look that says 'No one is changing my opinion on this'.

 _"Well, I guess a military uniform can be considered formal wear."_

"Great," Annabelle says, then sees the door opening and Miho along with Yukari entering the room. "I have to go now, but we will talk tomorrow. See you on the carrier."

 _"Before you go, you should now that Elizabeth will be there, since she finally became a member."_

Annabelle's face churns to a discontent one, though she quickly recomposes herself.

"I see. Thanks for telling me. Have a nice day, Darjeeling."

 _"Likewise, Annabelle."_

 _*Click*_

"Everything's okay?" Odysseus asks, having caught a glimpse of Annabelle's sour expression, but since she had moved her head away from the phone, she didn't hear what Darjeeling said.

"No, everything's fine," she answers and stands up, though as she passes next to Odysseus, she whispers to her ear. "I'll tell you later."

"The phone's all yours, Miho," Annabelle says as she drags Odysseus out of the room. "Come on, Odysseus, we still need to pack our luggage."

O-Ok," Odysseus says, unsure of what Annabelle wants to tell her later.

"I'll be taking my leave as well. Have a nice day everyone," Reiji says to them and exits the room, closing the door behind him.

"Did you find the letter, Miho?" Hana asks and Miho nods.

"Yes," she says and moves behind the desk, sitting on the swivel chair and putting her sister's letter next to it. Picking the handset and dialing the number the letter has, she waits for it to connect.

 _*Click*_

 _"Hello?"_

"Hello, Sister."

* * *

 **Thirty-three miles away from Busan**

 **Southwest in the Sea of Japan**

In the calm waters in the southwest part of the Sea of Japan, three warships sail at a brisk speed of 30 knots in a line formation. The first and last ships in the line are frigates, while the one in the middle is a guided missile destroyer. All of them have the markings of being vessels belonging to the Republic of Korea Navy. At the bridge of the destroyer, its captain keeps scanning the horizon with his binoculars for any threats that might appear. A habit that he had since his days in the Naval Academy that really saved him during the Second Korean Crisis back in 2023.

"How's the radar?" he asks with his gruff voice the radar operator.

"No contacts in its vicinity, Captain," the radar operator responds back to the captain.

"Good," the captain says. Lowering his binoculars, he starts stroking his beard in thought. During the war, whenever things were too quiet, like now, there was always an enemy lurking around somewhere. True, they left Busan about forty minutes ago, and a task force has been sent North of their position to strike an enemy's supply convoy in order to pull any enemy fleets away from them, but it would be foolish to only consider the best case scenario.

"Commander," he says and turns at the man next to him. "Take command of the bridge for now. I'll go and check on our guest."

"Sir!" the commander says and snaps a salute, before turning to look forward, he too scanning the horizon for any enemies.

The captain leaves the bridge, slowly making his way towards the captain's cabin, where their guest is currently in. Descending a staircase and passing through a narrow corridor, he makes it to his cabin. Knocking a few times and opening the door, she finds a girl sitting at the edge of his bed, looking at him somewhat nervously. The girl can't be older than eighteen or nineteen years old and she wears a school uniform that he has never seen before.

"You don't have to be nervous," the captain says and enters the cabin, closing the door behind him. "I came to check how you are doing and to introduce myself, since I didn't have a chance to because of our hasty departure. My name is Nam Se-yoon and I'm the captain of this vessel," he introduces himself.

"Oh! Ah-Ah, ummm...my name's Inui Ai, it is nice to meet you!" the girl stands up and immediately bows.

 _Good, it seems like I still remember my Japanese,_ he thinks.

"Uhm, Captain, when will we arrive?" the girl asks timidly.

"We should be at Nagato in about three hours," he answers and the girl nods in response, sitting at the edge of his bed again.

"I really hope the Japanese government will send help," the girl mumbles just loud enough for the man to hear her.

"You and me both, Miss Inui," the captain says and walks to his desk, which is opposite from where the girl sits. "So, from which school carrier are you?" he asks as he takes a seat at the desk's chair.

"I-I'm from Chi-Ha Tan Academy, sir," the girl answers.

Before the Captain can ask any more questions, the ship's alarm starts blaring.

 _"All hands to battle stations! I repeat, all hands to battle stations!"_ a voice blares through the intercom of the ship.

"What's going on!?" the girl asks nervously, her body trembling slightly with fear.

"Something serious, probably an enemy attack. I need to go back to the bridge. Stay here and don't leave the room," he says and quickly dashes out of the room, running towards the bridge as fast as he can. Reaching it, he immediately takes position next to the commander, taking his binoculars from him.

"Status report!" he immediately orders as all three ships open fire in the distance.

"Contact, North, Northeast, three signatures, distance eight, seven and seven kilometers respectively," the radar operator says as he keeps monitoring the unknown signatures. Se-yoon raises his binoculars to look at the enemy vessels and indeed spots three warships that resemble destroyers. Their hulls and superstructures are painted white and all three have green, tron-like lines running all over them. Shells after shells fall around them, with columns of seawater rising in the air and drenching them. The launched anti-ship missiles simply get shot down by red lasers. In one of the destroyers there is also a strange futuristic turret at its bow, resembling more of a railgun that can be seen commonly in sci-fi movies.

"Contact Busan and Cheongju, tell them the enemy is equipped with a laser point defense system and one of them with some kind of unknown weapon!" he orders his communications officer. Great splashes start rising all around his ship, the enemy throwing everything they have with frightening accuracy, the shells missing only by a meter or two.

"Captain, the enemy is preparing something!" the commander says and as the captain can clearly see a bright green flash to be glowing in the horizon.

"All ships, break formation and maneuver right!" he yells and the ships break the line in which they are, turning right as hard as they can.

 _ ***Bzzzzzzzzttt***_

As the captain can see, a great ray of apple green light hits the frigate that is in front of them, hitting it in the middle of the hull and creating a huge whole in it. A second later, several anti-ship missiles hit its left side, detonating the turret's magazine in the bow and completely destroying the engine room.

As the ship's twisted and flaming wreck slowly sinks at the depths of the sea, one of the anti-ship missiles from the Busan hits one of the enemy destroyers at its engine room, putting it out of commission.

"Captain, Busan reports a successful hit at one of the enemy signatures. They say an anti-ship missile hit its engine room," the communications officer reports.

"Contact command and tell them what's going on, there is no reason to keep radio silence anymore. After that, try to hail any friendly or Japanese vessels for help."

"New contact, four enemy signatures, starboard side, distance eight kilometers for all!" the radar operator says and the captain greets his teeth.

"Now we can't go back to Busan!" he grumbles, then turns to the commander. "Commander, get me a map! We need to decide where to go next!"

The commander immediately complies, saluting for only a moment and then going away to retrieve a map.

"Start laying a smokescreen, we need to cover ourselves!" he yells, then hears a sound that makes him widen his eyes in terror.

 _ ***Bzzzzzzzzttt***_

"Brace for impact!"

* * *

 **A/N: I know it has been over a month since the last time I released a chapter, but i have been kinda busy with my university, being lazy some days, and proofreading two stories for which I became beta reader. I'll try to not take that much time to release the next chapter, but no promises.** **Anyway, as always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**


	32. Chapter 32: Past Problems Catching Up

**The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 32: Past Problems Catching Up**

* * *

 **1st of July, 2 Y.A.**

 **Makeshift Helipad, Ether Force Base**

A few dozen meters away from the front entrance of the building, at a clearly makeshift helipad that is a square of white paint on the ground, ten people stand near it, namely the members of Anglerfish, Antelope and Yuki.

" _Yawn_... Did we have to wake up this early?" Annabelle yawns, covering her mouth with the back of her right hand. Next to her stands Odysseus, who has taken the role of the luggage carrier as evidenced by the two duffel bags that are next to her left leg, one green and one pink. "It's barely nine in the morning."

"We are lucky Miho managed to convince her sister to have their helicopter do a detour and fly us to St. Gloriana," Odysseus says to her sleepy friend, looking at the rest of the girls that chat with each other. "So stop complaining. Every time we have something to do you are wide awake from six in the morning."

"Yeah, because we have work to do, while now we don't. Couldn't they have the helicopter come a little later?" Annabelle asks with a grumpy expression, then eyes Odysseus, more specifically, the clothes she is wearing. "Didn't expect you'd actually wear a skirt of your own volition," she says somewhat amused.

Odysseus looks down at the black skirt and stockings she is wearing instead of the pants she normally has, then looks back at Annabelle with a flat face. "I didn't wear them of my own volition, but unless I want the lunatics in Tea Garden to burn me in a bonfire like I'm some kind of witch, I need to wear something formal that "befits my gender"..." she says sarcastically, making air quotes with her hands.

"But this is a rare sight indeed. It makes you look more feminine than usual," Reiji chuckles from besides Annabelle.

"Shut up Reiji, no one asked for your opinion," Odysseus retorts back at her gunner, who keeps chuckling at her now slightly blushing cheeks.

"Someone's grumpy today," Tyler, who is standing next to Reiji, says.

"Yeah, well, I have my reasons for my somewhat sour mood," she says back, then turns to face Annabelle. "I wanted to ask, but why are you wearing your normal clothes and not your uniform?"

"The uniform hasn't dried yet, so these were the only available clothes I had," Annabelle answers back.

"Well, you can always wear that lovely costume you forced me to wear yesterday," Odysseus suggests with a small smirk and Annabelle elbows her lightly.

"Only after I die will I wear something like that for your viewing pleasure you pervert," Annabelle responds back with a flat tone, causing both Reiji and Tyler to laugh.

"Ha, ha, ha, how funny..." Odysseus says with a grumpy face that lasts for only a moment. "Anyway, are you sure you want to go? You know, since Elizabeth will be there."

"Yeah, I don't mind that she'll be there. It's not like she'll teleport me to England the moment she sees me. And I really hope we'll be able to have at least a decent conversation for once."

"You think he is alive?" Odysseus asks, then snickers slightly.

"Absolutely. Cockroaches like him tend to survive all sorts of apocalyptic scenarios," Annabelle answers and chuckles lightly.

"Who is this Elizabeth girl you are talking about anyway? Every time you speak about her, you turn all serious and worried," Tyler says with curiosity in his voice.

"Remember how I told you that I left England because I was getting married to a guy I despised? Well, this Elizabeth girl is his sister," Annabelle says and Tyler widens his eyes slightly in surprise.

"And she is a transfer student in St. Gloriana?" he asks and Annabelle nods.

"Yes. Coincidence or not, she transfered a few days after my own transfer."

"Whats even more surprising is that she and her brother are royalty," Odysseus says and Tyler gawks in response. Even Reiji turns to look at her in surprise.

"No way..." Tyler manages to say. "You were supposed to be married into the royal family!?"

"You have no idea what a pain in the ass is to be married into royalty," Annabelle says with a disgusted expression, like the idea of being royalty is making her nauseous. "It is a hundred times worse than being a noble. First of all, you need to learn court etiquette all over again, and I'm not speaking about the building where lawyers duke it out. Second of all, you need to change your surname to the one that the Queen or King - whoever is ruling - is using and after the marriage you can't get a divorce."

"This indeed sounds like a pain in the butt," Tyler nods in agreement.

"And the guy I was supposed to be married into was plainer than a blank piece of paper... His looks were below average, he loved drinking alcohol like there was no tomorrow and to flirt with anything that had a hole between its legs," Annabelle says in slight anger, with Odysseus doing her best to stifle her laughing to prevent herself from angering the redhead even more. "In short, he was a drunk womanizer that had nothing to show off."

"Im sure there would have been a ton of girls who would grab the chance to become princesses though," Reiji says and Annabelle turns to face him.

"There were. That guy was only 21 and already had several relationships that ended with the girl giving up two months into the relationship. So they turned to the noble families with prospective female candidates and got promptly rejected by everyone...except from my fucking father. I really don't know what was going through that head of his when he agreed with this whole farce," Annabelle seethes quietly.

"Okay, take a deep breath and calm down a little," Odysseus says to Annabelle before things can escalate any further. "Neither your father or that idiot are here right now, nor is there any way for you to just teleport back to England, so relax and enjoy this single-day vacation we got."

"But I have to say, this guy sounds worse than Odysseus," Tyler smirks at his commander.

"What's that supposed to mean!?" she shouts, raising a shaking fist in front of her. "I swear to every living deity, Tyler, I'm going to find the place where you hide your condoms and burn them all in a bonfire."

"First of all, I don't have any of the aforementioned object hidden anywhere, and second, our relationship hasn't proceeded that much," Tyler responds dryly.

"Yeah yeah, whatever you say. Just make sure we don't hear anything about a Tyler Junior making his debut in nine months," Odysseus says with a serious expression and Reiji chuckles, while Annabelle facepalms and shakes her head slowly.

"Seriously, is your brain capable of thinking anything else other than sex and lewd things?" Tyler asks rhetorically, but Odysseus answers anyway.

"Hmm... I mean, I think about food every now and then," she answers with a pondering expression, tapping her right hand's index finger against her lower lip, then looking at Tyler and sticking her tongue out.

"When will you be coming back?" Reiji asks Annabelle, who is watching the silhouette of a helicopter slowly approaching them from the horizon.

"Most likely tomorrow evening," she responds, still looking at the helicopter. "Odysseus has set one of her marks at our room, so she'll teleport us there."

"How convenient."

"You have no idea."

"It seems the helicopter has arrived," Miho says, spotting Kuromorimine's Fa 223 slowly closing on their position.

"When will you come back, Miss Nishizumi?" Yukari asks Miho.

"Maybe in two or three days; we still need to prepare for our mission in America," Miho responds back. "Also, where are the rest of the girls?" she asks, looking around a little.

"I sent them to train with their new tanks," Yuki replies curtly as the helicopter finally reaches the helipad and starts descending on it.

The girls use their hands to shield their faces from the winds and dust that have picked up thanks to the helicopter's rotors. As the dust settles down a few meters away from the helicopter, which has turned its engines off, Miho picks up her duffel bag from the ground and looks at the girls.

"We'll take care of things while you are away, Miho," Yuki says.

"Are you sure you have packed everything you'll need?" Saori asks somewhat worried.

"Yes, Saori. You don't need to worry so much," Miho giggles slightly. "Well, I'll see you girls in a few days," she says at the girls.

"Have a safe flight," Hana says.

"Thanks," Miho nods in response, before turning and making her way at the side of the helicopter, opening its side door and climbing aboard.

"We'll see you guys tomorrow!" Odysseus says cheerfully and climbs aboard with the pink and green duffel bags, followed closely by Annabelle, who closes the side door behind her once she has entered.

With all the passengers aboard, the pilots of the Fa 223 start its engines, the rotors gradually gaining more and more speed until they spin fast enough to lift the helicopter in the air.

"So, are you excited that you get to see your dear Assam again?" Odysseus shouts over the noise the engines produce. Sitting on the empty seat next to Annabelle, she places the duffel bags at the empty space on her left, then puts on the intercoms headset and lowers its microphone.

"Well, I'm excited to see her, Darjeeling and the rest after a month. Not so excited to meet Elizabeth, but at least the other members of Tea Garden will be there" Annabelle answers and sighs. "How about you, Miho?"

"I'm really happy I'll see my sister and my friends from the carrier again," Miho smiles from her seat that is opposite from the girls.

"Say, where were you and your friends when the earthquakes happened?" Odysseus asks with curiosity. "Me and Annabelle were on the carrier at that time. Didn't feel a thing because the carrier was in the ocean. We learned about them from the news, though after a few days they stopped broadcasting."

"We were in Kyoto when they happened," Miho answers curtly.

"In Kyoto? What were you doing there?" Annabelle asks, somewhat intrigued by her answer.

"We had been invited to appear on a show to do a live interview about our win against Selection University," Miho says and both Odysseus and Annabelle nod in response.

"Probably to attract more people in Senshadou," Annabelle voices her own opinion.

"What happened when the earthquakes hit?" Odysseus asks with curiosity.

"It... It was horrible," Miho says with a sad tone, lowering her gaze slightly and looking on the helicopter's floor. "When the tremors started, it seemed like a normal earthquake of a small magnitude but...all of a sudden the ground started to shake violently, like a shockwave was traveling inside it. Buildings started to collapse and huge crevices to form as the ground split apart; thankfully we had our tank with us, so we managed to escape the city relatively unscathed."

"So Kyoto is a ruined city like Tokyo now?"

"No. The city doesn't exist anymore."

This causes Annabelle and Odysseus to look at her with surprised expressions. "A few minutes after we exited the city, a huge shockwave originating from its center decimated everything, leaving only a crater behind. Needless to say, we left immediately."

"Talk about being unlucky. First the earthquakes, then a meteor impact; you are really lucky you are still alive," Odysseus whistles in amazement.

"What about you? How did you manage to find yourselves in Blackout and with one of Kuromorimine's Panthers?" Miho asks.

"We left the carrier about a week ago after Darjeeling anchored it at the side of a conveniently shaped cliff," Odysseus answers, but Annabelle corrects her.

"You mean you left the carrier and I had to chase you all the way to the outpost before you could pass its gate and disappear," she says, at which Odysseus can only offer a sheepish smile. "But after that, we left the carrier, mainly because Odysseus wanted an "adventure" and she couldn't stand sitting on the carrier doing nothing. After about four or five months of exploring and scavenging, we stumbled upon Tyler, Reiji and Mizuki." At the mention of the last name, Odysseus loses her cheerful smile, a sad expression settling on her face.

"Mizuki? Who's that?" Miho asks the girls, not having heard the name mentioned from them before.

"Reiji's sister," Annabelle answers.

"Reiji has a sister?" Miho asks in surprise. "Where is she? Has she stayed back in Blackout's base?"

"No..." Odysseus answers slowly. "She is…I..."

Annabelle subtly grabs Odysseus' right hand to calm her, having spotted her eyes glistening, and answers in her stead.

"She is dead."

"Oh... I'm sorry to hear that..." Miho says, lowering her head slightly.

"Around two months after meeting them, we found the Panther abandoned in a field. We looked around for any signs of life, but we found none," Annabelle continues. "Thankfully it had some fuel left and it's suspension seemed to be in an OK condition, so we took it. We used it to travel around and even raid a few bandit bases for resources. Two weeks after that we stumbled upon a settlement; I really don't remember in which town it was, but it was near Tokyo. For the next few months we stayed there, though we were forced to leave after a large number of bandits attacked and razed it to the ground. After that, we roamed around till we stumbled upon Blackout."

Having finished her story, Annabelle turns to see how Odysseus is, who has now placed her head on Annabelle's left shoulder and is looking at the floor with a pondering expression. "Are you okay?"

"Better than ever," Odysseus answers back, still gazing on the cold, hard, steel floor of the helicopter. "Hey, pilots, where are you going to drop us off?" she suddenly looks at the cockpit and asks in the intercoms.

 _"We don't have that much fuel, so we'll be leaving you around a kilometer away from St. Gloriana's outpost,"_ one of the pilots answers her through the intercoms.

"Great... Now I'll have to walk in this uncomfortable skirt a whole kilometer..." Odysseus mumbles and plops her head back to Annabelle's shoulder, with the latter taking a hold of a lock of her hair and playing it around with her fingers.

* * *

 **A few hours later**

"Hey, you can see St. Gloriana from here!" Odysseus says at Annabelle through the intercoms as she points through the small window of the helicopter's fuselage. In the distance a massive carrier rests inside a big bay, its bow firmly lodged at the side of a very tall cliffside. On the foot of said cliffside is a tiny forest with a shallow but wide river running through it, while several buildings and what seems to be a wall settle in front of it.

"It seems everything has remained the same since we left the carrier," Annabelle comments, then notices that there are a lot of fields around the outpost. "Look, there are a lot of fields around the outpost. Probably to grow vegetables to eat."

"It seems they have diverted part of the river for irrigation," Miho says and points from her seat at a small canal with water that passes next to the fields.

"I wonder if they still have electricity at the carrier. When we left they had fuel for the generators for about 10 months or so," Odysseus murmurs as the helicopter starts moving away from the carrier.

 _"Girls, we will be landing shortly,"_ one of the pilots says in the intercoms and the helicopter starts descending, banking its nose up to lose forward momentum.

"Guess that's our stop," Annabelle says and nudges Odysseus with her elbow, who in return grabs the duffel bags on her left with one hand. "Once again, thanks a lot for convincing your sister to fly us till here, Miho," Annabelle smiles gratefully at her brown-haired friend.

"Don't mention it," Miho smiles back at the redhead as the helicopter shakes a bit, signaling that it has landed.

 _"We have landed; you can now disembark,"_ the pilot says and both Annabelle and Odysseus take off the intercoms headsets.

"Have a nice trip Miho," Odysseus shouts over the noise of the engines and waves at Miho. "Also, send my best regards to Erika," she cackles like a troll and makes her way to the exit door, sliding it open and jumping on the ground.

"Have fun at Kuromorimine," Annabelle waves at Miho, who reciprocates the gesture with a nod and a smile, then exits the helicopter and slides the door close, before making her way at Odysseus who is waiting a few meters away from the helicopter.

Seeing that their two passengers have moved far enough from the vehicle, the pilot lifts it up in the air, making her way towards their primary destination, the carrier of Kuromorimine.

"You know, I never really understood why the japanese government was OK with highschoolers flying helicopters like we are in some kind of anime," Odysseus says as she looks at the ever shrinking silhouette of the Fa 223. "And my God, it is so hot," she complains as she removes her uniform's jacket to reveal a rather short, sleeveless shirt that covers till above her midriff. Stooping down, she opens the pink duffel bag and puts the jacket inside it, then retrieves two white hats and closes it.

"You know that Assam and Pekoe are going to have a heart attack if they see you with that shirt, right?" Annabelle points out as she deftly catches the white hat that Odysseus throws her and puts it on.

"Couldn't care less of what they think about my clothes. It's bad enough I had to wear a skirt, I won't be in formal attire too before the party starts," she answers back. Lifting the bags, she motions with her head to Annabelle towards the carrier's direction.

"You know, you could have wore pants and then changed to a skirt," Annabelle says as both girls start walking at the edge of a wide dirt road.

"I know. In fact, I have a spare pair of pants in my bag," she answers and slightly raises her bag. "But I expected they'd leave us in St. Gloriana, not a kilometer away from it."

"Either way, it suits you very nicely. You should wear skirts and dresses more often," she giggles as Odysseus turns her head slowly to look at her with squinted eyes.

"You'll have to pass over my soulless, mangled, charred corpse first for that to happen," she says slowly, then her expression turns upside down and depicts a genuine smile. "Well...maybe if it's only you, I can make an exception," she winks at the redhead.

"Hooo... Are you trying to flirt with me?" Annabelle coos seductively at the blonde, stepping closer at her side and looking at her.

"Maybe..." Odysseus answers and turns to look at Annabelle's emerald eyes seductively too. They keep walking like this for a few seconds, then turn away from each other and chuckle lightly.

"Ahhh, why can't things be like this all the time," Odysseus sighs lightly, looking at the ever-closing farm fields. "Just peace and quiet."

"Well, enjoy it while it lasts," Annabelle says with a serene smile, lazily gazing around her.

After a few minutes they reach the start of the fields, where a lot of young girls are working, either cultivating the land, checking the plants to see if they are okay or harvesting them.

"Now that's something I'd never expect to see," Odysseus whispers as she leans closer to Annabelle. "Aren't these St. Gloriana students?"

"You know, not every girl in the carrier is reluctant to do manual labor or get dirty," Annabelle answers her friend as she looks at the working girls, trying to see if she can recognize anyone. Naturally, their arrival instantly draws the gazes of the workers that are near the dirt road, who stop their work to look at them, and within seconds Odysseus and Annabelle can hear them whispering with each other.

 _"Who are these girls?"_

 _"Bandits? But they have no weapons."_

 _"Maybe they are from the carrier?"_

 _"Don't they look kind of familiar?"_

 _"Wait! The redhead one... Could she be THAT girl?"_

 _"Then wouldn't that mean the blonde girl is..."_

 _"Miss Elizabeth won't like this at all."_

"Look Annabelle. We have been here for only a few minutes and we are already famous!" Odysseus snickers as she looks around subtly at the expressions of surprise and concern the girls in the fields show.

"I guess even after two years they still remember me," Annabelle sighs in defeat, having hoped that most of the St. Gloriana students would have forgotten about her till now.

"Get ready for the grand reopening of your fan club!" Odysseus laughs loudly, causing even more people to look at her. "You should ask Tyler for advice on how to properly run it. Maybe sign autographs every Tuesday evening?"

"My God, I'd rather commit suicide then have to deal with the shit Tyler has gone through back at Blackout with his "fan club"," Annabelle answers in a serious tone.

Reaching the outpost, the two girls stop in front of a large, metal gate, its frame being made of concrete and having a thickness of at least 3 meters. At the sides of the concrete gate, wooden palisades run for at least a hundred meters, before circling around to engulf the whole outpost.

"You think there is a bell to ring?" Odysseus asks sarcastically and motions at the gate with her head, placing the duffel bags on the ground next to her.

"Who are you?" a voice suddenly asks and both girls turn to look on top of the concrete gate, where they spot a guard with an assault rifle.

"I got this," Odysseus whispers to her friend, and before Annabelle can say anything, she coughs twice to clear her throat and shouts. "We are bandits! We came here to steal your women and plunder your treasures!"

The man just stares at Odysseus with a neutral expression for a few moments, before raising his weapon.

"I'm sorry, but I'll have to ask you to leave the area. Without proper identification you can't enter St. Gloriana," the man says with an unamused voice, resting his weapon's sights on Odysseus' head.

"Look Annabelle, the guy is aim-Gah!" Odysseus stops abruptly speaking when Annabelle hits rather harshly her friend in her gut, causing the blonde to fall on her knees and hug tightly her abdomen. "Screw you, you damn tyrant," she croaks in a strained voice, but Annabelle merely ignores her.

Turning to look at them man, she bows slightly, before looking up again and speaking.

"I apologize for my friend's behavior, she has a few loosened screws in her head," she apologizes at the guard, who seeing Annabelle's calm and collected expression, despite having punched her friend mere moments ago, sweatdrops a little and lowers his weapon. "Could you please inform Darjeeling that Annabelle and Odysseus have arrived? We were invited here by her, though no invitations were sent with the letter," she explains while Odysseus is still kneeling on the ground, though she seems to be in less pain now.

Looking at them for a few seconds with a pondering expression, the guard lowers his weapon to his side, holding it with only one hand.

"Etsuko!" the man shouts, still looking at the girls suspiciously. A few seconds pass before a young girl, about two or three years older than Annabelle, appears next to the man, in her hands a submachine gun resting, though it has no magazine loaded.

"Y-Yes?" she says in a slightly stuttering voice, making a rather sloppy salute at him.

"Go and inform Miss Darjeeling that two girls named Annabelle and Odysseus have come, and ask her if she indeed invited them here," the man orders and the girl widens her eyes upon hearing the first name.

"Annabelle? Y-You mean Lady Annabelle has returned?" she almost whispers in surprise, then looks at the redhead. "I-It's... It's really her..."

"You are wasting time, Etsuko. Move it!" he says sternly and the girls immediately scampers off like a scared animal.

" _Cough, cough._.. Damn Annabelle, when did you learn to hit so hard?" Odysseus coughs as she stands up, dusting her stockings and skirt. "But it turns me on when you are rough with me~."

"Say one more stupid thing and I'll sock you in the face," Annabelle glares at her friend, no amusement in her voice whatsoever. "What if he shot you? What would you do then?" she asks as Odysseus waves at the man on top of the gate, receiving back a glare as an answer.

"Come on, nothing would happen since-"

"-you have powers?" Annabelle immediately cuts her off, and when Odysseus tries to respond, she motions her to stay silent. "Just because you have otherworldly powers that resemble magic doesn't automatically mean that you are also bulletproof. It only takes a bullet in tge head to erase someone's life. You taught me that," she says and presses her left hand's index finger square in her chest.

"Fine, fine, I get it! Sheez!" Odysseus lifts her hands in a surrendering manner and backs away a little. "I get it, okay?"

"Good," Annabelle responds and turns to look at the man on the gate, who is now speaking with the returned Etsuko.

"Since we are on the topic of powers, if anyone asks about me having any powers or any relation to Ether, you say I don't, okay?" Odysseus whispers quickly as both the man and Etsuko start descending the gate.

"Huh? Oh, sure," Annabelle shrugs, not really getting why Odysseus has become so secretive all of a sudden but still going with it anyway.

After a couple of minutes, the steel gate finally starts moving, slowly sliding open. Behind it stands a man with gray hair, brown eyes and a short beard, wearing casual clothes and a bulletproof vest that has the word 'POLICE' etched in its front, in his hands an assault rifle with a grenade launcher mounted underneath it. Next to him stands the girl known as Etsuko, wearing St. Gloriana's school uniform. She has dirty blonde hair and pale blue eyes, while on her hands rests a submachine gun, which like previously, is not loaded with a magazine.

"Nice to meet you. My name is Naruhito Ichiki, former JSDF soldier and guard captain of the defense force in St. Gloriana," he introduces himself at the approaching girls, raising his hand for a handshake, which the girls reciprocate. "This here is my daughter and trainee, Etsuko," he motions at the girl next to him.

"M-My name is Etsuko. It is nice to meet you," she bows respectfully at the girls.

"I assume you are Miss Annabelle and Miss Odysseus?" he asks and the girls nod in response. "Good. Miss Darjeeling said she has sent someone to pick you up. You'll have to wait here till they arrive. Come now Etsuko, we have work to do."

"Y-Yes father!" the girl says and turns around, but not before smiling at Annabelle. "It's really nice to see you have returned, Lady Annabelle," she says with admiration and elegance, though they barely hold for more than a second as Ichiki speaks up.

"Etsuko!" he says sternly and the girl jerks upwards, straightening her back and quickly dashing besides the retired soldier.

"Little did she know Annabelle was going to be leaving the next day," Odysseus snickers, causing Annabelle to look at her weirdly.

"Please stop doing that, it's creeping me out," she says and Odysseus immediately stops.

"Fine. But I really hope no one has raided my room," Odysseus comments.

"Why? Got anymore of your "treasured collection" there?" Annabelle teases Odysseus.

"Well, not only that but I also have alcohol from my country hidden there," she answers casually.

"Didn't know you drank alcohol," Annabelle says genuinely surprised.

"Now you know. At any rate, we'll soon know," she murmurs as she spots a small pickup truck approaching from the forest.

* * *

 **Thirty Minutes Later**

 **St. Gloriana's Dorms, Third Floor**

"You sure we got the right room?" Annabelle asks as she watches Odysseus struggling to open a simple-looking steel door.

"Yes... It's just that this damn door won't budge!" she groans as she tries to push the door open to no avail.

While waiting for her blonde friend to open the stuck door, she looks around the hallway they are currently in, noticing the tapestries that cover the walls and the chandelier type lights that hang from the ceiling, as well as the red, carpeted floor.

"Fuck this," Odysseus curses and takes a step back, then Spartan kicks the door and with a screeching sound from its rusty hinges, the door finally relents.

"Using brute force to open it, how original..." Annabelle sarcastically comments as she passes Odysseus and enters the room.

"Has done wonders till now," Odysseus retorts with a smirk and grabs the two duffel bags, before entering and closing the creaking door behind her. The room is not very big for two people, but neither too small for one. At the side opposite from the door is a big window with a red curtain to block sunlight from the outside, while on the far right corner of the room is a single bed. At the wall opposite from it is a small closet made of wood and the door that leads to a small bathroom. The room also has a short coffee table and a small kitchen with all the necessary appliances and enough space for a person to be somewhat able to move. Everything is covered by a thin layer of visible dust thanks to it having being left with no one to clean it for the past two years.

"This room needs some serious cleaning," Odysseus comments as she slowly places the bags on the ground, careful not to cause any dust clouds to rise in the air.

"Yeah... Can you go to the janitor's closet and get some cleaning stuff?" she asks, but when she turns around, Odysseus is nowhere to be found, only the opened door evidence of her stealthy retreat. "Damn this girl and her unwillingness to do house chores," she grumbles to herself, then sighs as she exits the room and closes the door behind her. "This is going to take some time."

* * *

 **St. Gloriana's Dorms, Fourth Floor**

Looking around suspiciously, Odysseus slowly approaches the door of a certain room and quickly unlocks it, entering inside in the blink of an eye. Closing the door with a moderate thud, she looks around at the dark room, trying to find where the light switch is. Finding and turning it on, the lone light that hangs from the ceiling bathes the interior with much needed light, revealing a room that is similar to Annabelle's. Making her way towards her bed, she puts the collar of her shirt over her mouth and nose, causing the shirt to get dragged up and reveal the undersides of her breasts. Lowering herself over the dusty floor so she can see under the bed, she immediately spots a blue plastic bag that is filled with something rectangular, so she slowly drags it out towards her.

After getting it out from under the bed, she neatly sets it besides her.

"Found you!" she grins under her shirt, looking at the contents with a glint of excitement in her eyes.

Inside the bag is a handheld game console, more specifically a PS Vita, with the small box of a game lying next to it, its box art showcasing some girls on top of a warship, with the title of the game intricately designed at the top of the art, saying "Girls und Kriegsschiff". Under those two there is another small box of a game. While it's name isn't visible, the box art shows five girls standing in a beach, each one of them holding a weapon of her own. But from all the weapons, the most intricate one is the one that the girl in the middle wields. It is a rather large sword, painted golden with magenta edges and a chain running at the edges of the blade. Simply put, it looks like a chainsword.

"Hmm... What was the title of the game again? Seeker...of the Truth? No, that was a computer game I played back at the orphanage. Maybe Wild Rise? Whatever, I'll check it out later," she says with a pondering expression, then spots yet another small box of a game under the handheld game console.

"Why hello there," she says with interest and moves it from under the PS Vita just enough to see the title of the game.

"Lover's Heart..." she says slowly, rolling the name in her mouth a few times before realizing which game it is, though the box art that shows a partially naked woman is a pretty good clue.

"Yessss!" she shouts triumphantly, raising her right fist in the air. "Then that means that the rest of the magazines and comics must be here!" she declares in excitement and quickly ties the top of the bag.

"All these days where I had to feed myself with cheap instant noodles weren't in vain!" she says and actually cries a few tears of joy. Getting up and dusting herself, she fixes her shirt and goes next to the bed again.

This time she retrieves a knife she had hidden under her skirt and cuts the mattress in the middle. Putting her hand inside the cut she did, she retrieves a bottle that contains a clear liquid, on its surface a label that writes the word "Ούζο" (Ouzo) in Odysseus' language.

Having gotten what she came for, she quickly buries the small knife in the mattress, grabs the plastic bag and quickly exits the room, running towards Annabelle's as fast as she can.

* * *

 **One hour later**

"Are we even in the right street?" Odysseus asks as she looks all around her at the residential and commercial buildings, looking for a specific one.

"The girl said it was somewhere around here, and the street's name is the same one with the one she told us, so I don't think we are lost," Annabelle answers back as she, too, looks around for the shop.

"Couldn't Darjeeling send someone to pick us up? It's like three in the afternoon, I'm feeling like I'm boiling and I'm starving to death over here!" Odysseus complains, an annoyed expression settling on her face. "Last time we ate was back at the base."

"Stop whining like a child. We are supposed to meet them at a cafe called "Moon Shrine", so they'll surely have food there, even if it is sweets only," Annabelle says to her, then spots a small cafe in the distance. "Found it."

"I just hope it has air-conditioning," Odysseus says as she wipes a few drops of sweat that have formed on her forehead. Reaching the building, the two girls enter inside, the bell over the door ringing to announce the arrival of the new guests. Looking around, the cafe is nicely decorated, with flower-patterned wallpapers (not the computer ones) adorning the walls, a wooden floor and several small tables scattered around the place with fancy metal chairs.

"Ahhh... I don't think my budget allows me to be here..." Odysseus says somewhat quietly as she looks at the interior of the cafe. Seeing the few girls that are sitting at some of the tables and the clothes they are wearing, mainly St. Gloriana's school uniforms, she adds one more line. "Neither my clothes."

"Its your fault for coming like this," Annabelle says to her as she spots a short girl with short brown hair, brown eyes and wearing a waitress uniform coming towards them.

"It's hot outside! What did you expect me to wear, a coat?" she complains like a child, though Annabelle gives it no heed.

"Welcome to the Moon Shrine! How can I help you?" the brown-haired girl says with a smile and bowing a little. Annabelle just looks at her with slightly wide eyes for a few moments before finally speaking.

"R-Rina?"

"Eh?" the girl exclaims in surprise, looking at Annabelle with a confused expression, then gasping at her.

"L-Lady Ann-mpgh!"

"Sssshh. Unless you want all hell to break loose in your shop, it would be better if you didn't shout her name," Odysseus covers Rina's mouth and whispers in her right ear, the girl quickly nodding a few times.

"Lady Annabelle, how have you been? I was really sad when I learned you had left the carrier two years ago! Are you alright? Why did you return now of all times?" Rina asks in an almost inhuman speed, but making sure not to raise her voice and be overheard by anyone else.

"Rina, calm down, you are speaking too fast," Annabelle says with an awkward smile and the girl instantly stops speaking.

"I'm sorry, Lady Annabelle, it's just that I'm really happy to see you after all this time!"

"Hey, Annabelle, from where do you know this girl?" Odysseus leans closer to the redhead and asks in a whisper.

"She is one of the few friends I made when I came to the carrier before meeting you," Annabelle whispers back then turns to Rina.

"So, how have you been doing, Rina?" she asks with a smile, but before her friend can answer, a voice behind the counter booms.

"Rina! Why are you slacking off during your work hours! We have customers to serve!" a buxom girl shouts, probably the manager of the shop.

"Eep! I-I'm really sorry!" she stutters slightly and turns to look at Annabelle. "I'm really sorry, Lady Annabelle. We can talk in about an hour when my shift ends," she quickly says and scampers off to continue her work.

"Now then, how do we find Darjeeling and the rest?" Odysseus asks as she looks around for the aforementioned girls.

"Found them," Annabelle says and starts moving further into the cafe, going towards a single table in on one of the corners of the shop, where three girls sit drinking tea.

Stopping in front of the table, Annabelle greets them.

"Hello, Darjeeling, Assam, Pekoe," she says, with Odysseus simply waving at them, then taking a seat and snatching the catalogue that lies on the table, scouring it for something to eat.

"You always cut my name short," Orange Pekoe sighs as Annabelle takes a seat too, peeking at the catalogue Odysseus holds.

"Sorry about that," she smiles sheepishly as Odysseus closes the catalogue and plummets her head onto the table within her folded arms.

"It doesn't have anything to eat! It only has teas!" she releases a muffled cry.

"It seems some things never change," Darjeeling says calmly, putting down her teacup.

"And what's with your clothes," Assam says at Odysseus, though her tone is more concerned rather than scolding. "Doesn't it bother you-"

"That my scars can be seen by everyone?" Odysseus cuts Assam and raises her head. "Nah, not really. It keeps annoying people away from me, so I don't mind that much."

"How have you been this past month?" Annabelle asks as a waitress comes to take their orders. Taking their orders, the waitress walks back to the counter to relay them, so the girls continue their chat.

"Things have been quite eventful," Darjeeling says after sipping a bit of her tea.

"Bandit sightings have plummeted all the way to zero, so people from the nearby settlements don't give us that many escort requests anymore," Assam explains the current situation.

"We have been looking at ways of exploiting the resources that are within our territory, but so far we had no luck," Orange Pekoe adds with a sigh.

"How about the deal with Blackout?" Annabelle asks. The waitress that had taken hers and Odysseus' orders comes back, placing in front of them two cups of tea. "Thanks."

"With how things are, it remains as our best choice amongst the ones that we have in front of us," Darjeeling answers, though there is some level of concern hidden in her voice. "There have also been some troublesome girls here lately."

"Oh, power struggles... Nice..." Odysseus chortles sarcastically. "Have they tried assassinating you yet?"

"Please don't say things like that," Annabelle hisses softly, then turns to Darjeeling and bows her head a little. "I apologize for her inconsiderate comment."

"Don't worry about it," Darjeeling says back. "And nothing like that, Elpida. They merely express their dissatisfaction towards us through not so subtle means."

"Is it because of the massacre that happened in that meat grinder of a battle?" she casually asks and an uneasy silence descends on the table.

"I'm afraid so, and that's why I can understand their reasons behind their behavior," Darjeeling says, looking inside her teacup for a moment, but she quickly changes the subject. "Having said that, there have been a lot of rumors floating around lately."

"Rumors?" both Annabelle and Odysseus asks at the same time, mildly interested in them.

"Yes. They have been very prominent in the nearby settlements, talking about a huge battle in Tokyo between two massive armies," Assam explains and Odysseus nearly chokes on her tea.

" _Cough, cough, cough!_ " she coughs, quickly wiping the corners of her mouth from the leftover drops of tea with a paper napkin.

"But isn't Tokyo just a wasteland? Why would anyone fight there of all places. It's not like the city has any value," Annabelle quickly says, putting on her best facade so that no one will suspect she knows something about it.

"Moreover, they said about huge flaming rods of steel striking the city from the skies and a pillar of light that descended straight from the Heavens itself," Assam adds and Odysseus just face palms.

"These things sound completely ridiculous! They make it sound as if the forces of Heaven and Hell were fighting each other..." she grumbles with an expression of disbelief.

"There is also another rumor," Darjeeling speaks up. "A rumor that concerns Blackout."

At this, Annabelle and Odysseus both turn slowly to look at each other, then back at Darjeeling.

"Rumor has it that Blackout has created a rather interesting branch that deals with certain... "exotic" things." She pauses to lift her teacup and drink some tea, before setting it down and continuing. "We also know that you work there."

"How..." Annabelle whispers wide-eyed, but Odysseus simply bursts out in laughter, causing many of the girls from the nearby tables to glance at her.

"Watch it, Darjeeling. You are playing with a really hot fire over here," she jokes and closes her left eye. Both Assam and Orange Pekoe gasp in shock as Odysseus' right eye changes in a bright magenta color and the left side of her hair become white. Darjeeling too gets surprised, but she doesn't show it on her face.

"Oh my, I never suspected you were like Miho," Darjeeling admits and Odysseus sticks out her tongue in a silly manner.

"You idiot, turn to normal before anyone sees you!" Annabelle whispers furiously, not only because other girls might see her, but also because she disregarded her own decision to not tell anyone about this.

Odysseus deactivates her power and a smug smile etches itself on her face, seeing Assam's disturbed face on full display. "So, how did you learn all these beautiful things?" she asks.

"We have our sources," Assam answers after recomposing herself.

"Care to elaborate?" Odysseus asks with a fox-like grin.

"Section 9 doesn't reveal its secrets, if that's what you ask," she answers with a flat expression.

"How many know about this?" Annabelle asks with a serious expression.

"Well, since all the carriers cooperate with each other, all of the overall commanders, though only we and Kuromorimine know about the people working in that branch and the true purpose of iy," she responds and Annabelle somewhat relaxes.

"At least that's something," she sighs, picking her teacup and drinking some of its content.

* * *

The girls continued chatting for another half hour, at which point Odysseus got bored and went back to the room, while Darjeeling, Assam and Orange Pekoe went back to their own work. Around that time Rina finished her shift, so Annabelle spent almost another whole hour chatting with her, telling each other what they had been doing these past two years.

Leaving the cafe, Annabelle makes her way towards the Dorms to start getting ready for Tea Garden's party. She is really happy her friend has been doing fine all this time, though she was a little saddened she had to leave them for so long.

A small smile forms on her face as she starts recalling the fun times she had before meeting Odysseus. Though they weren't that much, because most girls tended to put her in a pedestal thanks to her status as English nobility, which made her kinda unapproachable in the eyes of most people. Still, there were a few girls that were willing to put her on the same level as them. Rina was one of these people.

Thinking about it, the girls were really reserved in the beginning, though they opened up after a while. A notable contrast to Odysseus' blunt and childish attitude. Now that she thinks about it, it seems weird she managed to become friends with her. Maybe it was that both of them were in a similar position? While everyone admired her for being nobility from England and really ladylike, Odysseus was the target of rumors and bullying because her behavior was "unbefitting of a proper lady". Yes, even the prestigious academy of St. Gloriana had such problems. Though it wasn't at the point of physical abuse most of the time, it took the form of a much worse kind; rumors. It only took a few people and time to destroy someone's future career by spreading lies that slowly became the truth, which lead to either isolating the target of the rumors from everyone, or traumatizing them psychologically. The rumors would eventually die, but by then the damage would have already be done.

The same thing had happened when Rosehip had joined Tea Garden, though they quickly died down, thanks to Darjeeling. But unlike Rosehip, Odysseus didn't have Darjeeling's "protection", thus she suffered greatly at the hands of the ones that had created those rumors. Calling her a slut and a whore just because she wore her uniform differently, saying she was going out with older men for money just because her body was more developed than the rest, calling her a freak of nature just because her body was full of scars.

And when Annabelle started hanging out with her, things took a turn for the worse. It seemed that some people were really annoyed she, a simple "commoner", was hanging out with someone of her status. People started to actively avoid her, both in school and out of it, while others tried to sabotage her. Darjeeling and some other girls did step up to calm down things before they could get out of hand, but everything culminated in a single incident, when three girls confronted her with a box cutter at her classroom after classes had ended. The incident ended with Odysseus beating them to a pulp, and when the girls tried to get her expelled from St. Gloriana, it backfired spectacularly. Since the girl that held the box cutter had attacked first, Odysseus' actions were categorized as self-defence, therefore were justified, even if extremely brutal. The girls tried to deny this, but video footage from a nearby security camera that had a visual on the whole fight said otherwise.

The incident never left carrier grounds, since it would have been bad publicity, and the three girls got expelled from the academy. The rumors immediately vanished, and the bullying she was being subjected to stopped, but people still showed contempt towards her.

Entering the Dorms, Annabelle can't do anything but sigh slightly. It seems human nature will always prevail, even in the most prestigious academies and schools. Reaching her room, she finds a key in front of the door with a piece of paper that has her name.

"Did she really left the key of the room outside?" Annabelle says with a raised brow, picking up the key and using it to open the door. "Seriously, what would she do if anyone other entered?"

"Hey, Odysseus! I need to talk to you!" she shouts as she enters inside and closes the door behind her. "Oi, where are you?"

Looking around, Odysseus is nowhere to be found, although her clothes sit neatly folded on top of her bed, next to the school uniform Annabelle procured from the girl that had informed them where Moon Shrine's location was.

"Is she in the bathroom? But she didn't answer back..." Annabelle wonders aloud, glancing at the bathroom door for a second, then turning back at her bed.

 _Huh? I think I can hear a faint melody playing from somewhere..._ she thinks as she starts hearing a faint music playing somewhere inside the room. Listening carefully for a few seconds, she traces it back at her bed. Looking next to Odysseus' clothes, she finds her handheld game console, it's screen displaying a game menu and over it with big white letters the word 'PAUSE' while the paused game is being displayed in the background.

"So this is producing the music?" Picking the device up, she notices that a cable is connected with it, and that this cable connects with a nearby power outlet.

 _What's the game she is playing?_ she wonders in her mind, but upon pressing the 'Resume' option from the game menu, as if she has triggered some kind of trap, the bathroom door gets bashed open and a naked Odysseus dashes out of it towards the bed.

 _*Bam!*_

Getting startled by the sudden loud noise, Annabelle lets the handheld console slip out of her hands and messily clatter to the floor, forcing the recharging cable to disconnect from the device.

"Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!"

Releasing a scream full of pure terror, accompanied by an appropriate expression, Odysseus rushes to the device that lies on the ground face down and kneels above it.

"S-Sorry for... For God's sake, go wipe yourself with a towel, you are dripping water everywhere!" Annabelle says to her, but Odysseus completely ignores her, instead carefully picking up the device and turning it around so she can see its screen. Her hands start shaking as she finds out the screen is black, meaning the console has turned off.

"Please don't tell me I lost all the progress I made the past hour..." Odysseus whispers almost inaudibly, her hands shaking more and more with each passing second.

"Odysseus, stop ignoring me!" she shouts but gets no response from the blonde. Making an annoyed expression, Annabelle goes to the bathroom to fetch her a towel as Odysseus turns on the PS Vita and runs the game. "Please God or gods, let the game be fine..."

Pressing the loading option and selecting the save file, her world instantly shatters as the words that every gamer dreads appear on the screen with bright red letters.

 _Error loading save file_

 _Reasons: Save file has been corrupted_

"The gods have abandoned me!" she cries out as she slams her left fist on the floor as Annabelle returns with a white towel.

"Mt condolences," the redhead sarcastically says, unfolding the towel and laying it over Odysseus, completely covering her back and head. "Now cover yourself and get back to the bathroom before you get the entire floor drenched with water."

"My life holds no meaning anymore..." Odysseus whines as she covers herself with the towel and slowly stands up.

"Stop overreacting, it's just a game," Annabelle says and Odysseus looks at her with wide eyes.

"A game!? Only a game!? Do you know how many nights I spent grinding the game instead of sleeping!? How many hours I wasted from my life so that I could grind those mundane side quests and their rare materials to build the best armor and weapons, to reach the max level on my character!? To unlock most of the achievements!?" she shouts exasperated, like Annabelle has demeaned her pride as a gamer.

"Woah, chill out!" Annabelle says and raises her hands defensively.

"How can I chill out when I have lost everything in mere moments!?"

"Now you are just being childish. Just go back to the bathroom and dry yourself before you catch a cold," Annabelle says as Odysseus goes back to the bathroom with a disheartened face and closes the door. Picking up the handheld console, she leaves it at the small coffee table, then sits at the edge of her bed.

"I have a really bad feeling about the party," she mumbles quietly, waiting for Odysseus to finish drying up so she can use the bathroom and change clothes for the party.

* * *

 **Two hours later**

Walking towards Tea Garden, two girls walk at a sidewalk, one dressed with St. Gloriana's standard school uniform, while the other is dressed in a black military uniform, wearing a black skirt and stockings instead of pants.

"Come on Odysseus, don't be like this," Annabelle says at her grumpy friend and Odysseus turns her head away from her.

"It's because of you that I lost all of my progress in the game!" Odysseus says with a pout. "I demand you take responsibility for this!"

"Look, I apologized for it, but it's not entirely my fault, alright? You were the one that startled me and made me to let go of the console."

"I don't care, it's your fault!" she whines like a child.

"Whatever you say..." Annabelle sighs and turns to look at Odysseus. "Look, I'll do one thing you want after the party ends as an apology for the console, I'll just ask you to behave during the party. I don't care if you don't act ladylike like everyone else, but also don't act like an immature child. Got it?" she asks and Odysseus turns to her and reluctantly nods.

"I'll try..." she mumbles quietly, causing Annabelle to sigh lightly.

"At least that's a start."

Walking in silence for the next few minutes, they both finally arrive in front of Tea Garden's metal gates.

"Straight to the monster's den, huh?" Odysseus murmurs as she looks at the small brick wall that surrounds the lot on which the beautiful building sits. "It's like a mousetrap... Waiting patiently for you to take the bait..."

"It won't be anything like that," Annabelle waves away her worries as she steps inside, following the small path paved with red bricks towards Tea Garden's entrance. "I heard from Darjeeling that it will have cakes."

Odysseus immediately steps besides Annabelle, closely following her with a dreaming gaze.

"You are so easy, you know that?" Annabelle shakes her head at how easily she can sway Odysseus when food is involved.

"Couldn't care less, there is food to be eaten," Odysseus immediately responds back, her belly growling in agreement. "See? Even this little guy agrees," she says and pats her abdomen a couple times.

Reaching the entrance of Tea Garden, which is double doors made of Mahogany wood, Annabelle opens the doors and the girls enter, finding themselves in a lounge-like small area, with two small sofas placed neatly at one side of the room, while several potted plants are scattered at the corners as decorations. The floor is covered by a red carpet, while the walls are painted in a crimson red coloration, with light being provided by lights hanging from the ceiling.

"What a fancy room, I wonder how the next one will be..." Odysseus says half in sarcasm and half in wonder as she and Annabelle walk towards the other side of it, where a single wooden door stands.

Opening the door, the girls find themselves in a huge area that is at least 50 meters in length and 80 meters in width. The floor is made of marble, while the walls are painted the same crimson red like the small room before, and antique chandeliers hang from the tall ceiling. In each wall, several big, curtained windows are built, making sure the place receives ample light during the morning hours. Several circular tables are scattered throughout the room, each one surrounded by four or five luxurious chairs.

"So many gazes..." Odysseus whispers to Annabelle as everyone inside the room is looking at them.

"Just remember to behave properly and everything will be fine," Annabelle whispers back and composes herself, putting forth her best smile.

"Great, you go greet everyone and I'll go sit with the others," she says as she spots where Darjeeling and the rest are sitting thanks to an energetic Rosehip waving at them. But before she can take a single step, Annabelle gently grabs her by her shoulder and stops her dead in her tracks.

"You'll come to greet them too. You were always complaining that the girls here were cold to you, but that's because you never took some time to talk to them or even behave with at least some level of respect around them," Annabelle whispers at her dangerously.

"But-!" Odysseus tries to protest, but Annabelle is having none of it.

"Please Odysseus, can you do this for me?" she asks and Odysseus immediately finds herself in a pinch. On one hand, she really doesn't want to talk to these girls, since she really doesn't like their "elegant" and "ladylike" style, and because she feels like they will backstab her at the first chance they get. On the other hand, Annabelle is asking her. And that's reason enough for her.

"Fine, fine, I'll greet them too..." Odysseus relents, scratching the left side of her head awkwardly. "But you'll do two things I want."

"As long as they are sensible things, I don't mind," Annabelle says back, and the two girls make their way towards the first table where four girls sit, drinking tea and eating cake.

"Good evening girls," Annabelle says with her most charming smile and the girls immediately turn to look at her with surprise and joy flaring in their eyes.

"Lady Annabelle, so you came!" one of the girls says in excitement, though she does keep herself collected.

"It is so nice to have you back at the carrier," another girl says after sipping some tea from her teacup.

"What have you been doing these past two years?" a third girl asks.

"Hi..." Odysseus waves awkwardly at the girls, don't really knowing what else to say.

"Ah, Elpida. What a surprise, we didn't expect you'd be coming," the last girl says in genuine surprise.

"Well, Darjeeling invited me at the last minute, and since I wanted to see how everyone's been doing, I accepted," she answers back and awkwardly scratches the back of her neck.

 _That's a load of crap, I just came because of Annabelle,_ she scoffs in her mind, but her expression remains that of a smiling girl.

"We have heard from Miss Assam and the rest that you have been working as a mercenary. Is that true?" the girl that had spoken second asks Annabelle with great concern, and the rest of the girls start showing faces of worry immediately.

"Sadly... Yes," she says slowly. "It had been really difficult surviving outside of the carrier and at the time I accepted the offer of becoming a mercenary I didn't have another choice, but... I really don't regret my choice of leaving the carrier. These past two years have given me plenty of experiences to better understand how this new world works, as well as they have taught me a great deal of things," she says and glances at Odysseus for a moment. "Plus I have Odysseus keeping me safe, so everything's fine."

"Is that so..." the fourth girl says, then turns to Odysseus and bows her head slightly. "Thank you for taking care of Lady Annabelle."

"Well, she is my friend after all! Isn't it reasonable to look after her?" she says a bit flabbergasted, not expecting to be thanked by people like these girls. Maybe she was just misunderstanding them all this time, like Annabelle said?

After a few minutes of chatting and another two tables, Annabelle and Odysseus finally reach the table where Darjeeling, Assam, Orange Pekoe and Rosehip sit. Sitting on the two free chairs, Odysseus just crosses her arms on the table and buries her face in them.

"God, I hate socializing with the elite..." she murmurs and slightly raises her head so that she can look at the rest of the girls. "Never call me in one of these boring parties ever again. Just pack a couple slices of cake and send them back at base," she says to Darjeeling as Annabelle puts in front of her a small plate with a slice of cake, so she simply draws it closer to her and starts eating it slowly, savoring the taste of every piece she takes with her spoon as much as she can. "This is pure bliss~!"

"What did you expect, Elpida? Loud and obnoxious music accompanied by flashing lights?" Assam scoffs disapprovingly.

"I actually expected boring classical music and various portraits of the kings and queens of England," she answers back, before cutting another big piece with her spoon and eating it.

"It isn't that bad, Odysseus," Annabelle says as she eats the last piece of her slice of cake, putting the spoon in the small plate and delicately wiping her mouth with a paper towel.

"When did you even eat that?" Odysseus points at Annabelle's plate dumbfounded.

"Trade secret," Annabelle answers with the elegance of a true English woman.

"Whatever you say," Odysseus says, then turns to Rosehip. "Hey, Rosehip, I bet you can't run ten circles around those two tables in less than thirty seconds."

"Is that a challenge?" she immediately asks, and before anyone can stop her, Odysseus nods with a fox-like grin. Rosehip immediately stands up and starts running around the aforementioned tables in circles, causing the girls there to either look at her with confused expressions, or merely chuckle at her weird but energetic behavior.

"Rosehip, that's not ladylike..." both Assam and Orange Pekoe groan in unison, while Annabelle hits discreetly Odysseus on her right shoulder.

"It's always lively when Elpida is around, isn't it?" Darjeeling says as Rosehip returns to the table panting, having performed the circles in under thirty seconds.

"A little too lively for my taste," Annabelle sighs as Odysseus grins at her victoriously.

Suddenly the door to the room opens and inside enter three figures.

The first one is a girl the same age as Annabelle and Odysseus, has flowy, light brown hair tied in an intricate hairstyle, and light gray eyes. She too wears St. Gloriana's school uniform, though it seems the uniform has been tailored specifically to her measurements, which can be described as average by Western standards. Behind her stand on both sides two women, both having short, brown hair and brown eyes. They are dressed in military uniforms and while not dressed in military gear, they still have a pistol holster with a pistol in it strapped on their right thigh.

"Look Annabelle, Queen Elizabeth and her S.A.S. lackeys have arrived!" Odysseus snickers at the redhead discreetly.

The girl merely scans the room for a second, and after registering who are within it, she goes over at each table to greet the girls.

Finally, reaching the one where Darjeeling and the rest sit, Odysseus pops a grin at her, causing the girl to show a displeasing expression at her.

"Long time no see, Elizabeth," Odysseus greets the girl with a toothy grin.

"It's princess Elizabeth for you, commoner," the girl named Elizabeth says with an arrogant tone that befits a member of royalty. "Maybe I can tolerate Annabelle calling me by my name, since she'll be my sister-in-law in the future.

"Huh?" both Assam and Orange Pekoe utter in surprise, though it doesn't take them long enough to connect the dots. Even Darjeeling seems surprised, but she barely shows it on her face.

"But wouldn't that mean..." Assam mutters quitely and looks at Annabelle, who currently has an annoyed expression. "So that means Lady Annabelle was to marry your brother, Ceylon?"

"Ceylon? That's one of the weird soul names from tea varieties you give each Tea Garden member?" Odysseus asks immediately after hearing Assam referring to Elizabeth as such.

"Yes. Since I got accepted in Tea Garden, I was given the soul name of Ceylon. It is a black tea variety that is grown in Sri Lanka," Elizabeth says proudly, but Odysseus can only offer a flat expression at this.

"Wow... It seems they have run out of good tea varieties," she deadpans, causing Elizabeth to develop a frown.

"Ugh, I have no time to deal with your improper attitude," she says and turns at Annabelle. "Annabelle, would you be so kind as to accompany me to that table over there? I wish to converse with you about some important matters."

"Sure..." she says hesitantly, then slowly stands up from her seat. "Elpida, wait here."

"Aye, aye, Captain," Odysseus gives a half salute.

The two girls go and sit at a table a few meters away, close enough so that their faces can be seen, yet far enough for their voices to be inaudible.

Taking a seat across each other, Elizabeth's guards simply stand behind her. A girl with a trolley comes to their table and serves them a cup of tea and a slice of cake each, before going away and leaving them alone.

"Hmm... It's not as good as back in homeland, but it will suffice for now," Elizabeth comments after taking a small sip of tea, gently placing her teacup at the top of the table.

"I see you haven't changed even a bit in the past two years," Annabelle bluntly says, putting her own teacup gently on the table after taking a small sip.

"While you have changed..." Elizabeth pauses for a few seconds, then continues. "...for the worse it would seem. This blonde girl is truly a bad influence for you; you should stop hanging around her."

"First of all, Elizabeth, she has a name. Second, she is one of my precious friends, so I won't abandon her simply because you told me to. Third, I couldn't care less about your opinion," she says with a sweet smile that masks perfectly her annoyance about the person that sits opposite from her.

"How low you have fallen. First she convinced you to leave the carrier, then to become a mercanary; truly a shame," Elizabeth says with a fake smile of her own, masking her disappointment masterfully.

"Where has, the sweet and obedient little girl you were, gone? To fall at the level of such barbarians," she sighs through her nose. "But at any rate, I believe my brother won't have a problem with this. After all, with a little bit of training and discipline, you'll become a decent princess."

"Huh?" Annabelle utters in confusion.

"I understand your confusion, but since the carrier has a satellite phone now, I managed to contact my family back in our country!" she happily says as she claps her hands together. "It seems a few things have changed there, with monarchy having being brought back and the Queen and King reigning over their loyal subjects once more!"

Annabelle merely makes a face of disbelief, shaking her head slowly. Then again, the whole world has gone to hell, so why would the return of imperialism seem strange to her?

"Anyway, I spoke with dear Brother and he told me that a ship will be sent here in Japan to take you back in England. Though I'd expect for it to take a month or more to arrive," Elizabeth says with a satisfied expression, though it doesn't last long.

"I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but I'm not marrying your brother," Annabelle states with a serious expression, causing Elizabeth to scowl. "I'll choose with whom I'll spend the rest of my life. Not you, not your brother, and neither a bunch of deals our parents did."

"Maybe I wasn't clear, but you _WILL_ marry my brother," Elizabeth states coldly, almost as if ordering Annabelle to do that. "The deal has already been sealed, so you have no saying on the matter. And you should be honored you'll become royalty, since you are the offspring of a lowborn noble and a prostitute."

Annabelle just manages to squint her eyes angrily, before the sound of a plate shattering echoes inside the room.

"Ahhhh!" Elizabeth yelps in fright and immediately turns her head to her right, finding one of her guards standing in front of her, and the remains of a broken, intricately drawn, porcelain plate on the ground in front of her. In a nearby table, a really pissed off Odysseus stands, with a lot of concerned, worried, and incredulous looks falling at her.

"Care to say that again!?" she shouts furiously, taking a few intimidating steps towards the princess and her guards, who are silently glaring at her, waiting to see what she'll do.

"What was that for? Have you lost your mind, you buffoon!?" she says in shock, knowing not why Odysseus had tried to hit her with a plate. But unknown to her, Odysseus had activated her power to enhance her hearing, enabling her to listen to the whole conversation. And that last comment had made her nerves snap like a twig.

"You know well what I'm talking about!" Odysseus growls, in her eyes a dangerous glint being present.

"Elpida, that's enough," Darjeeling stands up and says, immediately intervening before things can get out of hand. Rosehip also stands up, ready to rush towards the blonde girl if she tries to do anything harmful.

Odysseus keeps glaring at the princess for a few more moments, straining herself to not activate her power and blow everything to kingdom come.

"I'll warn you only once, Elizabeth. If you ever insult Annabelle like you did just now, I'll hang your mutilated, gutless carcass from this carrier's highest point for everyone to see!" she threatens, her cold voice sending chills running through the spines of most girls.

Having said her part, Odysseus quickly makes her way towards the room's exit, yanking the door open and almost hitting a girl with black hair and amber eyes that was about to open it. Sparing not even an apology, Odysseus exits the building.

"The insolence of that girl! Annabelle, I demand an apology!" she demands from the redhead, who just gazes at her with an expression of frustration.

"Why don't you take that demand of yours and shove it up your butt?" she curses quietly enough so that only Elizabeth hears her, who widens her eyes in surprise upon hearing her. "I came here with all the good will and hope that we could speak somewhat normally with each other, but no, you had to speak about my mother."

Rising from her seat, she gives Elizabeth a final warning.

"Don't push Elpida too far, Elizabeth. I've been with her for the past two years and I've seen what she is capable of." Pausing for a bit, she turns away from the princess. "She can be a really cruel person, Elizabeth. I should know; I've seen it first-hand."

With this, Annabelle makes her way towards the exit to find Odysseus, her frustration and sour mood causing her to completely forget to say to the girls where she's going.

"So... I guess things didn't go as planned?" asks the girl with the amber eyes, sitting at the table where Darjeeling is and placing her peaked hat neatly on the table.

"I'm afraid there were some..."unexpected" complications, Jasmine," Darjeeling sighs, really not expecting for things to take such an extreme turn.

* * *

 **Thirty minutes later**

"Where did that girl go?" Annabelle wonders aloud as she finishes searching yet another small park near the Dorms.

 _Usually when she was upset about something, she'd go in one of the nearby parks to cool her temper, but she is in none of them,_ Annabelle thinks, thinking hard as to where Odysseus might be. _Where else could she be..._

Pondering for a little while, she suddenly widens her eyes in revelation. "But of course! There is one more place she used to go!" she says and immediately starts running towards that place.

After a few minutes, she reaches a rectangular space that's at the edge of the carrier's starboard side. Three of its sides are covered by very tall bushes, while its final side offers a great view of everything that is at the carrier's right side. At one of the sides there is a big, black, metal door, which seems to be quite rusty.

Standing in front of the door, Annabelle puts all of her strength and pushes the door, its rusty hinges screeching quite noisily. Entering inside, she finds a single lamppost, along with a wooden bench next to it. This was a nice place if you wanted some privacy, though because it only had one bench and it was quite far from most commercial buildings, people rarely came here.

At the wooden bench, a single girl sits, her blonde hair draped over her left shoulder, her delicate fingers caressing a few tufts of hair slowly, looking over the safety railings of the carrier's deck and into the starry sky that looms over the bay.

Annabelle says nothing at first, only silently walking to the bench and sitting next to her while looking at the sky too. Several minutes pass without a single word being spoken, until the blonde girl scoots a bit away from Annabelle, then lies on the bench and places her head on top of the redhead's lap.

"I'm sorry, Annabelle," the girl says quietly, her voice full of sadness and regret. "I didn't want to ruin your fun, but...when Elizabeth spoke like that about your mom, i just got really angry."

"It's alright, Odysseus," Annabelle says with a serene smile, gently caressing Odysseus' hair, who keeps looking at the horizon where sea and sky meet. "You just got angry because of her comment and acted based on your emotions." Annabelle affectionately caresses Odysseus' left cheek that faces her and the blonde uses her hand to keep it there.

"It's just that... I was really on the edge of activating my power, Annabelle," she says, a few tears leaving her eyes. "I could have seriously injured everyone inside there, or even killed them!" she stutters slightly, more and more tears streaming over her cheeks, with Annabelle doing her best to gently wipe them from her face. "I could have hurt you! I don't want to hurt you," Odysseus whispers and turns so that her face looks upwards to Annabelle.

Annabelle can't do anything but notice just how scared and defenceless Odysseus looks, from her slightly trembling body, her quivering eyes that plead for help. It truly pains her heart seeing a person like Odysseus who is usually energetic and childish in such a sorry state.

"Don't worry, Elpida. I'm sure you wouldn't hurt me even then," Annabelle says with a smile, wiping the remaining tears from Odysseus' face. "I've been trusting you with my life for the past two years and I'll keep doing it till the day I leave this world."

"Thanks," Odysseus answers, smiling for the first time since she had left Tea Garden. "By the way, do you remember how you told me I could have you do one thing I want?"

"Yeah?" Annabelle asks.

"Do you mind...if we sleep together? I can sleep at the floor or in the bathtub if we can't both fit on the bed; I just don't want to be in a different room than you..." Odysseus says and turns to look away from Annabelle in slight embarrassment.

"Is it because of the nightmares?" Annabelle asks softly and Odysseus nods a tiny bit, putting her head closer to Annabelle, like a small cub that seeks protection from the scary dangers in its mother's hug. "Then I don't mind."

Odysseus says nothing back and closes her eyes, letting Annabelle to caress her hair in the gentle silence of the night.

* * *

 **The next morning**

 **Annabelle's room**

Slowly opening her eyes, Annabelle rubs them with her left hand and blinks a few times to clear her vision. Yesterday had been quite eventful, but at least Odysseus didn't do anything extreme. Trying to get up from her bed, she finds something firmly holding her right arm down. Turning on her side, she finds Odysseus lying next to her sleeping, while she hugs her arm and has shoved it between her breasts.

"And I told her to at least wear a shirt before falling to sleep," Annabelle frowns, looking at Odysseus who is only wearing her panties. Trying to get her atm out of its marshmallow prison, she manages to pry it off, with Odysseus shifting a little, like trying to get the arm back.

Shifting her gaze at Odysseus' face to see if she woke up, she can't do anything but smile in relief, seeing how her friend is sleeping soundly.

A strange feeling starts filling her stomach as she gazes at her friend's face, like she has butterflies in it. She doesn't know what or why, but she thinks she can feel a strange force attracting her towards the blonde, so she lets her instinct take over and slowly leans closer, kissing Odysseus softly on her lips. Her cheeks flush and her thinking becomes hazy for a moment as her heart starts beating faster and faster. Though when she draws away, her blood freezes in her veins, her face becoming as pale as the fresh snow.

"So..." she hears Odysseus saying, looking at her with her two, light purple eyes in amusement. "...I guess there's a reason you kissed me, right?"

"A-A-Ah, O-O-Odysseus, I-I-Woahhh!" Annabelle screams at the end as she falls from the bed's edge, landing on the floor on her back with a mighty thump. "Ouch!"

"Are you OK?" Odysseus asks as she peers over the edge of the bed, still lying on it.

"I'm fine," Annabelle answers quietly, sitting up on the floor and rubbing her back a little painfully.

"Oh, you're so cute when you are embarrassed!" Odysseus says in a cheerful tone, stretching her arms and pinching Annabelle's cheeks, which immediately flare up in crimson red color upon Odysseus' next question.

"So, why did you kiss me?" she asks again and Annabelle turns her head away in embarrassment, nailing her gaze down on the floor. "Come on, don't be like this. It's not like I'm fairing any better," Odysseus says and points at her slightly flushed cheeks as a way to make Annabelle feel a little bit better.

"W-Well...I..." Annabelle starts saying shyly, when a knocking on the door cuts her.

"Lady Annabelle, are you awake? It's Assam," Assam's concerned voice is heard from outside the room, so Annabelle quickly stands up, while Odysseus merely sits up on the bed.

"I'll be there in a moment!" Annabelle shouts, then turns to her friend. "Grab your clothes and go get dressed in the bathroom; something's not right."

"I know she sounded concerned, but couldn't that be because of yesterday?" Odysseus asks as she gets off the bed and starts picking up her clothes.

"I can only hope so," Annabelle says as she starts getting dressed with the clothes she had arrived at St. Gloriana yesterday. Having gotten dressed, she quickly goes over to the door and opens it.

"Good morning, Assam. How have you been?" Annabelle greets Assam with a smile. "I'm really sorry about yesterday and how I left without saying anything, but I was worried that Odysseus would do something stupid if I didn't find her on time," she apologizes.

"Hey, I heard that!" Odysseus yells from inside the bathroom, but her cries of protest are ignored by the redhead.

"No, no, it's alright!" Assam quickly says, though an expression of surprise settles on her face immediately after saying that. "Huh? Elpida is here?" she asks confused and Annabelle nods.

"Yes, we slept together," she answers, but Assam seems to have misunderstood the meaning of the sentence as her cheeks become red.

"S-Slept...together?"

"No, not that kind of together," Annabelle deadpans, and then Odysseus bursts out of the bathroom, kicking (and almost breaking) the door open.

"What did I miss?" she asks as she makes her way at where Annabelle and Assam are. "Good morning, Assam. What's the problem?"

"Miho called a few minutes ago. She told us to inform you to return immediately at your base; they found out where Keizoku and Chi-Ha Tan are," Assam says with great concern, and both Annabelle and Odysseus develop serious expressions.

"Did she tell you how?" Annabelle asks as Odysseus retreats further in the room and starts packing their things.

"No, but she sounded really worried; Darjeeling is talking with Maho as we speak, trying to see if she knows anything about it," Assam responds, then looks at Odysseus who is moving the small coffee table at the room's edge, next to the bed. "Uhm, what is she doing?" Assam asks apprehensively, and Annabelle turns to look.

"What are you doing?" the redhead asks Odysseus, who now stands in the middle of the freed space.

"Need some space to activate my power, or the wings might hit the things around me," she answers back and activates her power. Two white gauntlets, one on each hand, and a white breastplate cover her body, while eight tendrils form on her back, which quickly meld together to form two big, blue, semi-transparent, energy wings. Her eyes also change shape and color, their pupils becoming slit, while the right one becomes bright magenta and the left bright blue.

"Wh-What in the name of God is this..." Assam whispers as quietly as possible, being too shocked to even breath for a moment.

"Found the mark. We are ready to go," Odysseus says to Annabelle, who quickly goes to Odysseus and grabs the duffel bags, as well the blue bag that contains Odysseus' stuff that she had retrieved from the carrier. Grabbing Odysseus' left arm so that she'll teleport along with the blonde, Annabelle turns to Assam.

"I'm really sorry for our sudden departure, but things must be very serious if Miho wants us to return immediately," Annabelle says as Odysseus' wings start glowing brighter and brighter. "We'll come by again some other time," Annabelle says just before she and Odysseus vanish from the room, leaving a dumbstruck Assam to gaze at the empty space.

"Eh?" is the only thing Assam can say, her brain trying to process what it has seen just now at the best of its ability.

* * *

 **A/N: Finally done with it! Sorry it took so long, but I just got a job and it's leeching my free time like an Elder Leech from an RPG game. Combine it with university and real life, it's truly an awful combination. But I'll try my best to publish a chapter every month. At any rate, I really hope you liked the chapter, and the next one should be the final one before the girls get shipped to America.** **As always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**


	33. Chapter 33: Preparing the stage

**The Ether Conflict**

 **Cha** **pter 33: Preparing the Stage**

* * *

 **First of July, 2 Y.A**

 **Approximately two hours after leaving St. Gloriana, nearing Kuromorimine**

"We'll be arriving at the carrier shortly," the co-pilot announces as she points at the horizon.

Miho, who is now standing between the pilots' seats, squints her eyes and indeed, a few kilometers away from the shoreline they quickly approach, she spots a massive carrier, firmly anchored in place as indicated by the two, massive chains that begin from two holes in its bow and dive below the water's surface. In the shore, several buildings made of wood stand, while there are one or two made of concrete. Like in St. Gloriana, there is a wall surrounding the structures that probably function as an outpost, but there is no gate. Instead, there is an opening at the wooden wall and two box-like, metal structures at the sides of it; Miho thinks they look like tanks, but she can't be sure because of the distance.

"I thought the carrier had been beached," Miho asks confused.

"It technically is," the co-pilot answers through the intercoms, then turns to look at Miho. "The plan was to run it on the beach, but we ran aground a few kilometers away because the sea here is very shallow. It is a miracle the ship didn't keel at its side."

"Didn't it get damaged?" Miho asks and the co-pilot shakes her head.

"Thankfully nothing serious. Mostly paint-scratching and a few crooked steel plates, but no flooding."

"I see," Miho answers back, then asks another question. "How did you manage to survive these past two years?"

"You mean if we had enough supplies, or in general?" asks the co-pilot.

"Both."

"Well, thanks to the hydroponic farms and the desalination plant the carrier has, we have enough food and water to at least not die from starvation and dehydration. The only disadvantage to this is that most of the power the solar panels and wind turbines generate go there; at night the lights go out to converse energy in the batteries."

"What about other essentials, like medicine?" Miho asks and the co-pilot sighs lightly.

"For simple things, like gauze, or toilet paper we trade with the few settlements that have popped near the carrier. For things like antiseptic or more complex products, we procure them from scavenging, though in these two years, we have scavenged almost every abandoned city that is near us."

"It must be hard."

"It's nowhere near as hard as it was the first few months," the pilot says, and both Miho and the co-pilot turn to look at her.

"Why do you say that?" Miho asks with a curious tone.

"Has your sister talked to you about the port incident?" the pilot asks and Miho nods her head.

"Good, that makes things easier to explain. After one of the Panthers and its crew were left behind during the refueling of the carrier, it seems the Senshadou club didn't like it that much and promptly took action by "throwing" the principal of the carrier in one of the lifeboats and having Maho assume total control of it." Before she can continue, the co-pilot speaks.

"Good riddance to him, I say," she spats disgusted, a sour expression forming on her face.

"Amanda, while I do understand how you feel, his decision was right. If the carrier had waited any longer, there could have been even more casualties. Even the Maus can't stop an RPG warhead from the front."

"But if the carrier had waited a few more minutes, Aoi, they could have saved them!" the girl named Amanda grumbles, looking away with a sad expression.

"Amanda? Are you a foreigner?" Miho asks in surprise, but Amanda shakes her head.

"No. My parents just loved foreign names."

"At any rate, this little stunt your sister pulled didn't sit well with some of the girls. Tensions rose so much that people got divided into two groups; those that supported Maho and those that opposed her. Thankfully, because of your sister's actions and good will, tensions became almost non-existent and everything was peaceful for some time." Aoi ends her sentence with a heavy sigh that carries an ominous tone.

"Why are you sighing, what happened?" Miho asks with concern.

"It was around two months after the port incident that the left-behind Panther appeared in the gate of the outpost."

"They survived?" Miho gasps, but both pilots shake their heads slowly.

"Not all of them. The commander and the gunner were dead, both the loader and radio operator were barely alive, and the driver had a really nasty gash on her right shoulder," Amanda says slowly. "In the end, only the driver and the loader survived."

While the pilots visibly express their sadness, Miho can't do anything but feel a tiny bit of pity. Nothing more, nothing less. With how many people she has seen fall, both by her hands and her orders, it doesn't shock her anymore.

 _It seems my in Blackout has changed me a lot,_ she sighs mentally, waiting for Aoi to continue.

"Because of that, things got really turbulent again, people getting divided once more," Aoi sighs once again, glancing at the helicopter's instruments to see if everything is working as intended. "From the survivors, we learned that some bandits had set up camp about fifty kilometers to the West, so some people wanted to attack them, especially some of the girls from the Senshadou club, while others were against this idea."

"Your sister decided against an attack, saying that it would leave the carrier vulnerable, not speaking about the scarce supplies we had at that time," Amanda continues as Aoi gets in touch with the carrier to inform them of their arrival. "Pravda dealt at some point with them, but this did little to calm down things."

"And with the last battle and the losses Kuromorimine got, the tensions must be really high between everyone," Miho says with a worried expression, which becomes even more worried when Amanda nods.

"Yep. You could say that we are in the brink of a coup d'etat or a "civil war", Aoi says after having finished talking to the carrier, making air quotes with her right hand on the phrase "civil war". "Some of the girls really want your sister to step down from her position, saying that she can't make the right decisions."

"Let's be honest, even if these dimwits took her place, they'd probably make things worse," Amanda scowls, looking at the ever-closing carrier. "They really don't understand that some times sacrifices must be made. Unfortunately, you can't gain without giving first."

"In the first place, everyone that participated in the battle knew the risks; the whole force was completely made by volunteers," Aoi scoffs as the helicopter flies over the outpost. "Sure, it is tragic that so many lives were lost, but they signed up for it."

"People will just use anything for their own purposes, however much they have to twist it," Amanda says, waving her hand dismissively. "But that's human nature in a nutshell. Anyway, for how long will you be staying here?"

"Eh? Ah, I'll be staying for a few days," Miho says after a moment of silence, having been caught off guard by the sudden theme change.

"If only we could get some vacation time too," Aoi sighs, causing Amanda to slightly glare at her.

"But we barely fly anymore. Most of the time we just stay in our rooms or walk around in the carrier," she says dryly at her co-pilot, who conveniently ignores her.

"Can't talk now, I'm landing the helicopter."

As the helicopter gently shakes to indicate it has touched down on the landing pad, Miho turns around to go and grab her duffel bag, but before she can take a single step, Amanda speaks up.

"It's really good to have you back," she smiles, and Miho returns it with a smile of her own.

"Thanks!"

As the two pilots start flipping switches to power down the helicopter, Miho grabs her duffel bag and goes to the sliding door. Opening it and jumping down, she finds two girls waiting a few meters away from her.

One of them has short, dark brown hair and dark brown eyes, while the other girl has long, light blonde hair and light blue eyes. Both of them wear Kuromorimine's student uniform and have a hair clip at the left side of their head; the one in the dark brown haired girl's head has the shape of a Tiger I tank, while the one on the blonde girl has a Königstiger shape.

"Welcome back, Miho," the dark haired girl says with a soft smile.

"It's nice seeing you again, Sister," Miho says with a beaming smile, then turns to face the blonde girl. "It's nice seeing you too, Erika."

"Likewise," Erika responds with a stern face.

 _It seems some things never change,_ Miho giggles in her mind after seeing Erika's serious attitude.

"How was your flight?" Maho asks as Miho puts her duffel bag down next to her.

"It was fine. Thanks for flying Annabelle and Odysseus to St. Gloriana."

"Don't mention it. Say, did you eat anything during the flight? I know it's a little late, but would you like to have lunch together? I haven't eaten anything since breakfast and I'm getting a little hungry," Maho asks and Miho immediately nods with a bright smile.

"Yes!" Miho says with excitement, so Maho turns to Erika.

"Erika, can I leave things to you for a few hours?" she asks and Erika nods.

 _But I, too, want to eat with you!_ she yells inside her mind, but another answer leaves her mouth. "Of course, commander!" she says with a stern and determined voice.

"Thanks, Erika. Inform me if anything happens that needs my attention," she says and turns to Miho.

"Uhm... Where should I leave my bag?" Miho asks hesitantly.

"Erika will take it at your dorm room," Maho answers and eyes Erika, who in response nods.

 _Now I'm a luggage carrier too!?_ Erika fumes mentally, but as instructed, she takes Miho's bag and starts walking towards the dorms, while the two sisters towards the school's mess hall.

* * *

 **Half an hour later, School's Mess Hall**

It had been around twenty minutes since Miho and Maho had reached the school's mess hall, by which time it was almost empty; you could count the remaining girls that were eating with the fingers of both of your hands. But upon their arrival at the school, like during their walk to it, Miho drew a lot of curious gazes because of her uniform. Though, because of Maho's presence next to her, everyone was hesitant to approach them and ask her about it.

Right now, both sisters sit in a table opposite of each other, slowly eating their food and enjoying their time together.

"Mmm!" Miho hums dreamily as she eats yet another bite from her food, placing her left hand on her left cheek.

"You seem to be enjoying the food," Maho comments with a smile and Miho nods immediately.

"Yes! It is so much better than that in Blackout's base," she immediately responds and takes one final bite from her food, before putting her chopsticks next to her plate. "We can cook ourselves, but we almost never have the time to do it, especially these last few weeks."

"You were busy with work?" Maho asks curiously and Miho nods once.

"Somewhat. Blackout created a new branch recently, and the Director put me, along with Odysseus and another girl, in charge of it."

 _A new branch? She must mean the Ether Force. Seems like Darjeeling's information was very accurate,_ Maho thinks, though she waits for Miho to continue speaking before asking her about it.

"So there was a lot of paperwork that needed to be done and we still had to take missions to at least earn enough money to cover our expenses," Miho sighs a little. "Thankfully my friends helped with it."

"If you don't mind me asking, what's this new branch called?" Maho asks hesitantly.

"It's called Ether Force. In short, it is a unit comprised of people who can use Ether, or are using Ether-related equipment, who are tasked with dealing with Ether-related issues," Miho immediately answers, not hesitating even a moment in answering her sister's question.

"What about the rest of the Ooarai teams? What happened to them?"

"We hired them in the Ether Force," Miho says with a tiny amount of sadness mixed in her voice. "It wasn't the best result, but it was our only option for the girls to stay with us."

"Couldnt you have them stay in one of the schools? I'm sure no one would have a problem in accommodating them," Maho says, but Miho shakes her head.

"Most of the girls wanted to stay with us, so we didn't have that many options," Miho giggles awkwardly, then widens her eyes in surprise as she remembers something.

"Oh, I just remembered! In a few days I'm leaving for America," she says and Maho looks at her surprised.

"A mission?" she asks and Miho nods.

"I can't say much, but we were "hired" by Blackout to find and eliminate some spies that have infiltrated their american branch," Miho says quietly and Maho nods.

"You'll be gone for a long time?" Maho asks and Miho makes a difficult face.

"The Director said we'll be gone for at least two months, maybe even more," she answers back, causing Maho to look at her with a worrisome expression.

"Please be safe, Miho," she says and Miho smiles at her.

"I'll be fine, Sister," Miho reassures her, though her smile quickly fades away as she procures a small, blue cube and places it on top of the table. "But there is another reason why I'm going to America."

Maho takes the small cube and starts rotating it around, scanning its every side.

"It has to do with this cube?" Maho asks as she spots a small indent with a familiar shape, so she runs her fingers against it to she if she can remember it.

"Yes. I...used my power to make the key to open the cube; the indent where the key is supposed to be placed seemed to me very familiar." Miho retrieves a small object from her pocket and settles her closed fist over the table. Opening it, she reveals a small necklace shaped like a wing settling on her open palm. "Does this remind you of anything?"

Maho takes it with one hand and brings it closer to her, looking at it carefully.

"I remember Mother had gifted an exact same necklace to me when I was thirteen," Maho says as she puts the wing in the cube's indent, causing it to glow briefly with neon blue lines all over its body. "She was really upset when I told her I lost it."

Opening the top part of the cube, Maho finds nothing inside of it, causing her to slightly raise her brow in confusion. "It's empty?"

"No. It had this inside," Miho says and passes her sister a piece of paper. Maho takes it and reads what's written on it.

 _If you want to know the truth, seek a woman named Ghost in the city of Los Angeles. She will tell you everything._

"Where did you find this cube?" Maho asks with a stern expression.

"When the Director of Blackout found out I was involved with the Serum experiments, he sent a team of mercenaries to our house to retrieve any information they could find relating to them, and they found this cube hidden in Mother's office," Miho answers and sighs slightly. "I think Mother wanted for you to learn about something or to search for her in case she ever went missing, like now."

"And why should I?" Maho says a bit harshly, though she barely raises her voice. "After everything she has done to you, why should I follow her orders?"

"I believe...there is more to this story than what we truly know. Mother would never do anything that would hurt us; she must have had some kind of reason."

"Can you say this even when she tried to disown you?" Maho asks disgusted, and Miho, albeit reluctantly, nods.

"Yes."

Before Maho can retort, the doors to the mess hall open and a slightly panting Erika enters, quickly making her way towards the two sisters.

"Commander, a situation has developed," Erika quickly says and salutes, causing both Maho and Miho to look at her with worried looks.

"Is everything alright, Erika?" Maho asks immediately.

"We received an SOS signal a few minutes ago, around forty nautical miles to the southwest from our position," Erika says.

Maho turns to Miho with an apologetic expression. "I'm very sorry Miho, but we'll have to talk later."

"Its okay," Miho reassures her with a smile, so Maho stands up from her chair.

"Is the signal still transmitting?" she asks as she starts walking towards the exit with Erika on her side explaining the situation.

"Yes, but the transmission is in Korean. We are searching for a girl that can translate it as we speak."

"Have you tried contacting them?"

"Yes, but we have received no answer."

Leaving the mess hall, Miho is about to stand up and leave herself, when she hears a familiar voice calling her from behind her back.

"Miho!"

Miho immediately widens her eyes, turning instantly to face the person that has called her name.

"Koume!"

* * *

 **At the same time**

 **Forty nautical miles away from Kuromorimine**

 **Guided Missile Destroyer, Sejong the Great**

"Captain, you should remain in the bed! You are in no condition to assume command!" the infirmary nurse shouts as the whole ship shakes violently, the sounds of explosions, water splashes and cannons/guns getting fired fill the air.

"And who will command the ship? The commander is in death's door and most officers in this vessel have no combat experience," the captain shouts back harshly and motions with his bandaged hand at the bed next to him, where the unconscious commander lies, his whole body and head wrapped in white bandages and a monitor showing his really slow heart rate.

"Still, you need to rest! We were barely able to treat the burns in your right arm and face!" the nurse shouts back, but he is having none of that.

"Stand down, Lieutenant! That's an order!"

Albeit reluctantly, the nurse stops talking, grumbling something incomprehensible under her nose. Standing up from the bed he had been lying for almost a day, he quickly grabs his spare uniform's shirt and jacket one of his men had brought upon his request, wears them and quickly makes his way out of the infirmary, which is bustling with injured crew. Making his way to the Operations room as fast as he can, another violent explosion shakes the ship, causing the captain to lose his balance and land on his bandaged arm on the floor of the narrow corridor, his wounds immediately flaring up with pain.

"Aww fuck!" he curses as he quickly stands up, grabbing his arm with a pained expression. Reaching the Operations room, he opens the sealed door and enters inside, closing and sealing it behind him.

"Captain on deck!" one of the nearby officers yells and everyone inside turns to face him and salute him, before quickly continuing with their assigned tasks.

"What's the situation?" he asks as he approaches a big table at the center of the room, which projects a map of the surrounding area. On the center of the map are two green dots, while a bit further from them are four red dots. Over each dot there is a square with various information, such as unit name, condition, coordinates and more.

"Sir!" a man who holds a PDA approaches the captain and salutes him, before starting his report.

"We have four enemy destroyers currently pursuing us, with one of them being the destroyer with the unknown laser weapon that attacked us yesterday. The other three have either being disabled or have disengaged for unknown reasons."

"What about our ship's and Busan's status?" the captain asks and the man slides with his finger a few times at the PDA's screen.

"Our ship is at 75% structural integrity, with the last few shots against us having destroyed the helipad and breached the mess hall, but thankfully there were a few non-fatal casualties. On the other hand, Busan is at 49% structural integrity, with multiple fires on its main deck and superstructure, and multiple penetrations at its stern; unless we do something about the pursuing enemies, they'll most likely not make it."

"How about the distress signal?"

The man makes an annoyed expression for a moment, swiping the PDA's screen a few times.

"Us and Busan have been transmitting for about twenty hours, but we've yet to make contact with anyone; we suspect the enemy might be jamming our communications."

"What the hell's going on? We should have had made contact with at least someone until now," the captain mutters under his breath as he looks at the holographic map with a thoughtful expression. "What is the military doing?"

"Captain, we've made contact with someone!" the communications officer yells from his station, so the captain immediately rushes to him. "They are speaking in Japanese."

"Please be the JSDF," he whispers as he snatches the man's headset and puts it on his head to speak.

"I repeat, this is Maho Nishizumi, overall commander of Kuromorimine Girls Academy and the school carrier Graf Zeppelin. We have received your distress signal. What's the situation?" he hears a voice saying, so he immediately starts speaking.

"This is Captain Nam Se-yoon, captain of the Korean Navy's Guided Missile Destroyer, Sejong the Great. We are transporting a girl from a school carrier named Chi-Ha Tan and are currently being pursued by Institute destroyers. You need to inform the JSDF that we need immediate assistance," he says loudly and a few silent seconds pass before the girl on the other side of the line speaks.

"We are sorry, but this cannot be done. Japan as a nation is no more, and so is the JSDF."

"What!?" the captain nearly yells and everyone turns to look at him. "What do you mean they are no more?"

"After the earthquakes, Jap...and th...while the JSD..."

"Dammit,the enemy is jamming us," he curses as he can only hear static noises coming from the headset, so he hands it back at the communications officer.

"Captain, we have enemy fast movers coming from West, Northwest, probably aircraft!" the radar operator announces and in the holographic map three red dots in a V formation appear, quickly approaching them and Busan.

"Ugh, they really want us dead, don't they?" he scowls. The sound of the anti-air weapons opening fire fills the air as they desperately try to shoot down the airplanes. As the three red dots pass over the two green dots, a weak explosion sound echoes inside the Operations room and Busan's green dot disappears.

"Captain, Busan has been critically hit and is flooding water from multiple points! The engine room has been destroyed and the superstructure has been completely obliterated!" one of the officers inside the room says and the captain merely sighs.

"Good men always die first, huh?" he mutters as he remembers the words of one of his superiors when he had just graduated from the Naval Academy. "Then I guess...either our time has run out or a miracle will save us," he whispers as he watches the three red dots turning around and finalizing their approach for a strafing run on his ship.

* * *

"Huh?" Miho utters as she looks in the horizon, a strange feeling washing over her whole body, causing her to shiver unconsciously.

"Are you okay?" asks Koume who is next to her and Miho nods.

"Yes, everything is fine," she responds back with a smile, and Koume smiles back.

"Come on, I can carry at least that much, Satsuki!"

"You'll strain yourself again! Just let me carry them, Ritaiko!"

Turning to look behind them, they spot two girls, one with short brown hair and light brown eyes, and another, shorter girl with black hair tied in a side ponytail and black eyes. The girl with the short brown hair is missing her left leg from below the knee, supporting herself with two crutches while holding a couple of plastic bags on her left hand.

"They are at it again," Koume sighs at the bickering of the two girls, now being the third time they had been fighting for the same thing.

She and Miho had decided to take a stroll through the carrier, talking about what had happened to each other these past two years when they met the two girls bickering, and since Miho wanted to ask how they were doing, they all stuck together in the end.

"Why don't you just split them?" Koume asks and takes half the bags Rotaiko is holding and hands them to Satsuki. Both girls stop arguing, but they don't seem content with the solution.

"You know, I could easily carry them," Ritaiko pouts and looks away.

"You'll strain yourself again," Satsuki grumbles, looking at Ritaiko with a scolding expression.

 _Hmm... I could ask Mannheim to make a robotic implant for her; I'm sure he wouldn't have any objections to it,_ Miho thinks as she looks at Ritaiko's missing leg, but suddenly, a feeling of fear and dread washes over her whole body, forcing her legs to start trembling.

Spinning around instantly, her eyes change color to red for a moment, scanning her environment fearfully.

"Where is it?" she whispers quietly, though Koume who has returned to her overhears her.

"Where is what?" Koume asks, though she gets no answer. "Miho?" she asks in concern when she sees the ends of Miho's hair turning gradually from brown to black. "Is everything alright?"

"Something's wrong," Miho finally answers and breaks into a sprint, completely surprising all the girls.

"Wait, Miho! Where are you going!?" Koume shouts and runs after her, leaving Ritaiko and Satsuki to look at them with perplexed expressions.

"What just happened?" asks Satsuki confused.

"I have no idea," Ritaiko answers, watching the two fleeing figures with a clueless face.

* * *

"Wait, Miho! What's gotten in you all of a sudden?" Koume shouts as she tries to catch up with her brown haired friend. Miho doesn't respond back and continues to run towards the side of the carrier.

"Please Miho, stop running!" she pleads as she starts panting, her stamina slowly reaching its limit.

Miho doesn't respond on her pleads, continuing running as fast as she can. Taking a right on a small road, she completely vanishes from Koume's vision, who in response grits her teeth and pushes herself to run faster in order to catch up with her. Rounding the corner into the small road, she is greeted with the sight of Miho vaulting over the deck's safety railings and falling into what's seems to be certain death.

"Miho!" Koume gasps in shock and terror, her eyes widening as much as they can. "NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!" Running at the safety railings from which Miho has vaulted over, she looks down from them, only for something fast to fly in front of her, causing her to yelp in surprise and fall down on her butt.

"Ouch," she groans as she painfully stands up, only to freeze in place. "Mi...M-Miho?" she stutters in shock as she finds Miho hovering a few centimeters above the safety railings, two big wings made of some kind of red crystal floating behind her back, her eyes having changed from their normal brown to red with the pupils being slit, while her hair are now black.

"W-What is this..." she asks slowly, but Miho offers the next as an answer.

"I'll explain later, but now I have to go," she says and flaps her wings once, shooting towards the sky. Reaching a sufficient altitude, she levels herself parallel to the ground and shoots forward with a speed of four hundred meters per second, breaking the sound barrier in the process.

Koume presses her hands tightly against her ears, as the sonic boom nearly deafens her, and looks at Miho's shrinking form, her face full of confusion, cluelessness and fear.

* * *

As Miho keeps flying a few meters above the surface of the sea, a lot of questions and possibilities start passing through her mind. First of all, the energy that washed over her felt awfully familiar, like Mannheim's, though it was different in a way. She can't exactly understand how different they are; she just has this nudging feeling that Mannheim's energy signature and this new one have some basic differences.

Second of all, while she can't sense the origin of the energy any more, whoever did this, they clearly wanted to get her attention.

Third of all, the person who released this wave, is extremely powerful. The moment the wave passed through her, she could feel the potency of Ether it had over all her body, making her feel like she was going to suffocate.

Whoever this man, or woman, is, they'd probably beat her to a pulp in mere seconds. But then, why is she flying towards this person? Is it out of simple curiosity or something more?

 _ ***Vzzzzzzttt***_

Hearing a sound that reminds her of an electric motor, Miho snaps out of her thoughts and barely manages to perform a barrel roll to avoid numerous rounds fired upon her from her left which miss her and harmlessly fall in the sea, splashes of water marking where they fell.

Looking next to her, she spots a beat-up warship painted gray in the distance, its superstructure being scorched and melted at the place where the bridge once stood, while a few small fires have sprung on its deck. Scanning her vicinity, she spots four ships on an uneven V formation, painted white with green lines running all over their hulls.

"Those markings," she says to herself as she instantly recognizes the camouflage of the ships. "So the Institute has ships? But why are they chasing a lone warship?"

Changing her direction towards the lead ship in the V formation, more and more fire start raining all around her from the enemy's AA guns, but Miho has no problem evading them. Reaching five hundred meters away from the ship, she drops her speed considerably and crashes through the bridge's side windows, folding her wings behind her so that she'll be able to move freely in the confined space and lands in the middle of the room. Before anyone can react, Miho materializes two black spears and stabs them on the floor, causing everything inside the room to start vibrate violently. Almost instantly, everyone except the captain of the ship drops dead, red blood oozing through the slots and cracks of their helmets.

The captain, a man that wears a white uniform adorned with blue tron-like lines and a helmet that has two slits dimming blue light at the place where the eyes are, immediately draws his pistol and aims it at Miho, but before he can fire, a black wolf materializes behind him and bites his hand, dragging it away from its master.

Miho disengages [Resonance], just in case she loses control and it starts affecting the captain, and grabs the man from his neck with one hand, lowering him on her level and looking straight in the dimming slits.

"I'll ask you only once, so you better answer me. Why are you pursuing that warship?" she asks and points at the gray warship in the distance which is getting hammered by enemy shells.

Miho waits a few seconds for an answer, but the man refuses to speak. As she tries to think of a way to make him talk, an interesting idea pops in her head. Miho raises her left hand and ignites it in red, semi-transparent fire.

"Mannheim once said that Ether can warp reality, meaning that everything is possible," she says as the fire engulfs the whole gauntlet and starts shining brightly. "Let's see if I can read your memories."

Placing her hand on the man's helmet, she immediately starts seeing before her very eyes the man's memories, like they were her own in the first place. After a few seconds, she removes her hand that is now devoid of any flames and stumbles backward, grabbing her head with one hand as a very strong headache grips it. The captain falls to the floor unconscious, the shock of the memory reading being too much for him.

"Ugh... Kuro, deal with the rest of the crew in the ship; I'm sure they'll notice there is a lack of communications with the bridge and come to investigate," she says as she sits down on the ground, closing her eyes and taking a few deep breaths.

 _"Are you okay, Master?"_ Kuro asks as she materializes next to Miho, sitting on her hind legs.

"I'm fine, Kuro. It's just that the memory reading strained me a bit, that's all," she says back, so the wolf stands up and goes away to hunt the rest of the crew. Miho takes this chance to review what she learned from the captain and starts recalling the read memories.

"So, they were tasked with hunting down and sinking a Korean Navy warship that is transferring a VIP named Inui Ai, a member of the Chi-Ha Tan Academy. Seems Chi-Ha Tan and Jatkosota are docked in Busan, with Institute forces trying desperately to take over the town and secure the carriers,"she says and makes a pondering expression. _Why would they want the carriers so much? They don't hold any strategic value, unless they can somehow weaponize them. Maybe they want the Senshadou teams? This wouldn't make any sense either. The girls might be very skilled, but they'd still need time to be retrained to another, more modern tank. Also, how come they know so many things? Probably spies or moles within the Korean Army._

Sighing in relief, a gentle smile forms on her face.

"It doesn't matter right now. At least we know where more of our friends are; I only hope they are alright."

Feeling much better now, Miho slowly stands up, but when she looks in front of her, she finds a muscular man wearing a white uniform made of metal with red, tron-like lines all over it. His helmet has six red, LED lights in a hexagonal pattern on its front, while his hands are covered in metallic gloves.

 _An Executioner!_

Before she can react, the man punches her in her guts with so much force that she passes through the bridge's console and out of the front, leaving behind destroyed electronics and deformed metal. Falling down on the deck, she painfully rolls a few times and comes to an abrupt stop when she collides with the back of the ship's frontal turret. Rubbing her back and sitting up on the ground, she finds the Executioner in front of her in midair, falling down to punch her once more.

Miho immediately unfolds her crystal wings and uses them to block the punch, generating a small shockwave on impact. The Executioner punches again, and small chips of red crystal fly everywhere, with Miho groaning in response. Using sheer force, she pushes the man back with her wings and materializes several red spears all around him, then clenches her fist and causes the spears to fly towards the man and impale him from every imaginable angle, giving him a gruesome death.

 _"Master, are you all right!?"_ Kuro asks as she materializes next to Miho, looking at her with a tilted head.

"Did you deal with the rest of the crew?" Miho asks as she stands up, wincing a little bit as she rubs her bruised belly a little, though her injuries quickly heal thanks to her power.

 _"I sensed you were in danger, so I stopped my hunt to come and assist you,"_ the black wolf responds.

Miho simply raises her hand and several black spears form in the air above her, before clenching her fist and letting the spears get lodged in the ship's deck.

"I see. At any rate, let's get out of here; we still have to destroy the rest of the ships and protect the gray warship," Miho says and flaps her wings once.

 _"Understood, Master,"_ Kuro responds and bows her head once, before disappearing in a cloud of black smoke.

Miho flies upward as the black spears start exploding one by one, completely destroying the bow of the ship and condemning it to slowly sink to the abyss.

Reaching an altitude of around a hundred meters, she takes a moment to survey the battlefield, watching the rest of the enemy ships continuing their pursuit, firing round after round at the gray warship in the distance, which can only return fire with anti-ship missiles, which get destroyed by the lazer defence system once they reach a hundred meters away from the Institute destroyers. The AA guns start firing on her, so she puts a barrier in front of her, the rounds hitting it and bouncing harmlessly off it.

Several massive spears made of red Ether start forming above her, forming a crude cylinder with a diameter of around ten meters. As they start spinning, an energy orb forms at the center of the cylinder. Miho places her hands as if she is holding an imaginary bow, and slowly pulls the imaginary string back, causing the spears to start rotating faster and faster.

"Hmm?"

Miho develops a perplexed expression as she starts feeling Ether concentrating on one of the ships, and sure enough, she finds a rather futuristic weapon turret aiming itself on her, its barrel glowing an eerily familiar green color. Pulling the imaginary string as much as she can, the spears start rotating so fast that their forms become hazy and the cylinder constricts so that it only has a diameter of one meter, forcing the orb to take the shape of a really crude spear made of what seems to be lightning.

Having charged completely, the futuristic turret fires a beam of Ether energy at Miho, who still keeps her imaginary bow trained in the middle of the enemy's formation. Clashing with her barrier, the beam slowly but surely starts cracking it, though it has nowhere near enough power to pierce through it.

"[Railgun: Chain Lightning]," Miho says and releases the imaginary string, letting the lightning spear get launched out of the cylinder and into the middle of the enemy formation in under a second, generating a sonic boom from breaking the sound barrier.

The moment the spear touches the water, it disintegrates and multiple arcs of red electricity jump out of the contact point and into the enemy destroyers, coursing through their hulls and electrocuting the crew, while igniting anything flammable or explosive.

As the Institute's destroyers lay in pieces and burn brightly in the evening sun, their deformed hulls slowly sinking under the surface of the sea, Miho sighs, putting down her barrier.

"So the Institute also has ships," she mutters to herself a second time, watching the sinking ships for a few seconds. "I need to confirm the warship is indeed transferring Ai, so-"

Before she can finish her answer, she hears something akin to a rocket motor from behind her, so she turns around only to find a missile hitting her in her chest at great speeds, then fire and smoke engulfing her completely. As she exits the fireball and starts falling to the ground, she spots three jet planes in the distance coming towards her, their fuselages painted white with blue tron-like lines on them.

Using her power to regenerate her broken wings that have been shattered, she spins once around herself so that she hovers in the air standing, then materializes two energy spears behind her and an energy dagger on her right hand. Twirling it once, she flaps her wings and starts flying towards the jets at incredible speeds, reaching them instantly and stopping in front of them. Swiping her dagger horizontally, a thin layer of Ether gets launched in front of her.

The jets try to dodge the thin layer, but two of them get hit by it, with one getting cut in half horizontally, while the other tries to turn away and gets its left wing cut. As both jets fall to their deaths, Miho tracks the third one that has successfully evaded her attack and the two spears that now hover besides her start solidifying, turning black with a red mark that is an arrow hitting an archery target.

"Sorry, Odysseus, but I'll have to borrow one of your tricks. [Gunner's Sight: Target Mark]," she says and a red mark appears on the last jet plane, which consists of a circle made of Kanji letters that rotates clockwise, and a hexagon that contains a smaller circle on its center and rotates counterclockwise. Launching her black spears, they start pursuing the jet like homing missiles with such maneuverability and speed, that despite the pilot's best efforts to throw their aim off, they strike the aircraft square on the mark, passing through the fuselage and completely destroying it in a massive explosion.

Turning her gaze to the beat up warship, she flies towards it. Looking at it more closely, she can see a lot of holes on its hull, a destroyed helipad on its back and a superstructure that is on fire, with a substantial part of the bridge missing, the metal that remains clearly indicating it was melted by something.

Landing on the bow of the ship, several men armed with submachine guns or pistols exit on the deck and aim at her.

"Please don't shoot. I'm not an enemy," she says, though she doesn't deactivate her power, just in case any of the sailors become trigger happy.

"Then identify yourself," a man, whose face and right arm are covered in bandages, says, his uniform being the flashier of the ones Miho can see at the moment. Behind that man is another man, who is clearly worried and is whispering something to him.

"Please, Captain, you shouldn't be here! It is very dangerous!" Miho hears the man whispering, but the person who is presumably the captain of this ship simply ignores him, instead waiting for an answer from Miho.

"My name is Nishizumi Miho," she responds and the captain slightly raises his brow. "I'm the one that dealt with the Institute ships and aircraft that were attacking you."

"I see... Men, lower your weapons," the captain says and the sailors, albeit reluctantly, lower their weapons, so Miho deactivates her power, making a lot of the crew blink in confusion. "I assume there is a reason for you being here, but let me asks you something first," the captain says and makes his inquiry. "What exactly are you?"

"It's a long story," Miho sighs as Kuro materializes besides her, scaring some of the men and causing them to raise their weapons again. "Don't worry about her, she is friendly," Miho says as she pats Kuro.

"Well, I'm sure you can tell us a thing or two under this voyage. Now then, come. I assume you will guide us to the Kuromorimine Girls Academy and your sister?" the captain asks and Miho widens her eyes in surprise.

"How do you know about them?" she asks and the captain smirks.

"We got contacted by her, responding to our distress signal. We had another ship named Busan with us, but it got sunk by the Institute not long ago," the captain says as most of the crew starts going inside the ship to inspect its damages, help with the field repairs and extinguish any fires, or man their battle stations in case the enemy decides to attack again.

"I have to say, you seem awfully calm for seeing a person with wings using a power that seems like magic," Miho says and the captain chuckles.

"Hah, I always was a guy that is difficult to be impressed. Plus, you aren't the first person I see using this weird magic thing. Ever heard of Executioners?" he asks, though he quickly follows up with another question. "At any rate, why are you here?" he asks as Miho walks besides him and both start heading inside the ship to the Operations room.

"I'm here to see if you have a girl named Inui Ai."

* * *

 **Several kilometers away from the Guided Missile Destroyer, Sejong the Great**

In the calm surface of the sea, two figures stand on it and slowly walk, looking in the distance.

"It seems the battle has ended," says the male figure at the female one, swiping his hand and erasing a white translucent panel with a video feed that floats in front of him. The man looks to be around thirty years old and is one hundred and eighty-eight centimeters tall. He has black, messy hair, light green eyes, a scraggly beard and a goatee. He wears a crinkly, black suit, along with black dress pants and black dress shoes. The man tries to fix his messy hair, but the moment his hands leave his head, they return to their original, messy pattern. "Dammit. Why can't I fix my hair?"

The female figure turns and looks at him with a bored expression. The woman looks to be around her late twenties, around one hundred and seventy centimeters tall. She has medium length, pink hair tied in a bun, ice pink eyes, and a scar that runs over her left brow all the way to her left ear. She wears a plain, white shirt that exposes her midrif with a short, brown jacket that is open and a belt on her waist that has pouches to hang knives. She wears blue jean shorts and white sports shoes, with the laces being pink on the left shoe and green on the right one.

"I. Am. Bored!" whines the woman at the man angrily. "Augustus, you said there would be fighting! That's the only reason I came to Earth with you!" she pouts, turning away from the man huffish.

"Come on, Milly. All I did was to utter the word fight and you immediately jumped through Tal' Kim's gate with no hesitation. It's not my fault you didn't ask for clarification," the man says and smirks slightly when Milly starts hitting him with her fists.

"That's unfair! You cheated!" she cries out, causing Augustus to chuckle slightly. "Anyway, what will you do now? You know, since the Korean warship wasn't stopped?"

"It doesn't matter that much. It's not like there'll be any serious deviations from my plans," Augustus answers, but Milly doesn't look so sure.

"You know, challenging the Queen wasn't the brightest idea. There is a reason why she rules all of us," Milly says worried, but Augustus simply waves his hand uncaringly.

"I'm very powerful too, Milly. Don't forget, who won his first training match against the Warden of the palace?" he smirks and Milly starts fuming.

"That was thousands of years ago!" she shouts, her face red in anger. "And you cheated back then, too!"

"Just admit you lost fair and square."

"Never," she says and crosses her arms over her rather small chest. "Just out of curiosity, couldn't we disguise ourselves and go and fight that candidate girl?" she asks and Augustus immediately shakes his head.

"No. The Queen has ordered us to observe them, and while we could learn a lot of things by clashing with her, we'd ultimately defeat her; she is not powerful enough yet to stand besides us," Augustus says and Milly nods in response, getting the gist of what he is saying.

"So the data would be inaccurate?" she asks and Augustus nods. "You seem somewhat displeased," Milly points out.

"That's because I expected for the blonde girl to be here as well. I even let a fraction of my power to leak out in order to draw her," he explains and Milly develops a sultry face.

"Hoo~ Are you perhaps interested in her~?" she teases the man, but Augustus turns and looks at her with a flat expression.

"No," he bluntly responds. "But I am interested in her power and how it works in conjuction with her mental instability." Augustus develops a thoughtful expression, and after a few moments of looking at the surface of the sea, he looks up to Milly.

"Say, do you still control the religious fanatics in America?" he asks and Milly looks at him in surprise, then develops a devilish smile.

"Yeah. Their leaders think God speaks to them, so they do whatever I tell them! And their followers obey them blindly!" she chuckles darkly, then winks at the man. "Don't tell it to anyone, but I even bestowed three of their followers with powers. It will be a lot more fun to watch the whole civil war when it erupts!" Her face suddenly develops a cringy expression. "Though…these old men have a lot of creepy fetishes and rituals. They have been sacrificing "purified" girls to me for the last few months. It makes me wanna vomit. Disgusting humans," she mutters disgusted. "Anyway, why do you ask?"

"I want to see if the blonde girl's power is directly connected with her mental instability and emotions."

"And how will you do that?"

"She has a redhead girl that she treasures above everything else," Augustus says and Milly immediately develops a dark grin.

"It would be pretty bad if something happened to her. Ehehehe..." she chuckles darkly, then turns to Augustus. "I'll see what I can do. Do you mind if the girl dies?"

"No, she is expendable. Thanks a lot, Milly," he says. "Since you are the friendlier of the bunch with me, I could only ask you."

"Well, in contrast with the others, I don't care what your agenda is. For all I care, you could kill the Queen and take her place. I only care about fighting." Her expression darkens considerably, something that doesn't escape Augustus. "But..."

Placing her right hand on her left side on the level of her hips, pink petals start whirling around it. Making an unsheathing motion, she draws a katana with a bright pink blade and a black handle. Slicing upwards, the sea in front of her gets split in two for several kilometers. Twirling it on her hand, she rests the blade on Augustus' neck, her eyes brimming with bloodlust. "If you decide to pick a fight with me, I'll cut you in pieces, however powerful you may be."

"You can certainly try," Augustus says and grabs the blade, slowly moving it away from his neck.

"Malliusca, Augustus."

Hearing their names, they both turn to their left and find two figures walking towards them, one male and one female.

The male figure is a man in his late twenties with wide shoulders, almost as tall as Augustus. His hair is pitch black, while his eyes are a really dark red. He wears an open, black trench coat and under it a red suit and black shoes. On his head he wears a black cowboy hat with a red headband on it. In all his clothes, red lines are mixed in.

The female figure is a woman in her early twenties, having flowing blonde hair that reach all the way to her back, piercing green eyes and tanned skin. She wears a simple tunic made of wool, leather pants and leather boots, while over them she wears flowing robes colored red with silver/platinum edges.

"Oh, the first of his kind has arrived," Milly snickers, her eyes flashing dangerously. "Hey, Arashi, long time no see!" she waves cheerfully at the man with the cowboy hat, who in response just scoffs. "Oh, not a man of many words it seems. How is Kyoto doing? I heard the city got wiped out," she says and grins when she sees the water around the man starting to boil. "Oh, did I hit a nerve? Imagining the screams of the people burning to death just by standing near you, or trying to attack you," she cackles and winks at him. "Oh how their screams filled me up with joy and pleasure! Just thinking about it makes my blood boil!" she says and points her katana at Arashi, finally showing her true persona.

"Milly, that's enough," Augustus says and physically lowers her katana. "They are not here to fight us. We already did this once and look how this world became."

"Arashi, please calm down," says the woman on his left, gently grabbing his arm. This seems to do the trick as the water around him stops boiling.

"Thank you, Mollia," Augustus says at the woman and bows slightly.

"It is okay," she responds.

"The Queen has asked for an audience with you," Arashi says, not sparing even a greeting at Augustus and Malliusca. "She wants to report what you have observed regarding the Ether Lord candidate."

"Understood. Then we'll go right now," Augustus says and turns around to walk towards a portal that has appeared a few meters behind him, when he spots that Malliusca is staying put.

"Milly?" he asks, but he gets no response.

Without a warning, Malliusca flashsteps in front of Arashi and swings her katana vertically. Arashi immediately forms a barrier that covers him and Mollia, successfully blocking the attack.

 **"I'm reaaaalllyyyy itching to end our fight here, Arashi,"** Malliusca says with a maddening glee in her eyes and swings her katana once more, cracking the barrier and generating a shockwave that disturbs the sea enough to form small waves. **"Because of that bitch of a wife you have on your left and the stupid Queen, we never found out who is the strongest. I think it's time I correct this!"**

The water in an one kilometer radius immediately starts boiling, hot steam rising in the sky. Arashi's eyes have gone from dark red to fiery red, and as everyone can see, he has already raised a massive, black-red pistol and is pointing its barrel at Malliusca's forehead.

"I think that's enough," Augustus says and before anyone can react, he dashes between the two combatants and summons his weapon, a sword made from a bright green, translucent metal. Using its flat side, he swings it like a club and hits Malliusca on the head, knocking her out dead cold. Seeing this, Arashi refrains from pulling the trigger.

"This girl never learns, does she?" Augustus sighs as he lifts Malliusca and puts her over his shoulder. "I wonder what punishment the Queen will give her this time," he sighs and walks till the portal, completely vanishing from the face of the earth.

"Arashi?" Mollia asks slowly, but the man says nothing at first.

"Everything's fine," he says as he dismisses his pistol, letting it vanish. The water stops boiling, though with how much water has evaporated, dark clouds have start forming in the air. Saying nothing more, he vanishes too, quickly followed by Mollia who does the same.

* * *

 **A few hours later, Kuromorimine Girls Academy, Principal's Office**

"I'm really sorry we brought you here this late at night, but we need to know what the purpose of your transfer was," Maho says, sitting behind the principal's office. In front of it, in two chairs sit the girl named Inui Ai and captain Se-yoon, with Miho standing on their left. "But let's start from the basics. How did you and Jatkosota find yourselves in South Korea?"

"Uhm...we...we were in open sea when the earthquakes happened and shortly after that we got hit by a very powerful storm that knocked out all communications and GPS and Radar functions. We were traveling towards where we thought there was land, since the weather was very cloudy for a few days and we couldn't use the stars to navigate, but then we found Jatkosota's carrier drifting aimlessly in one of the ocean currents. It seems they had been caught in the same storm and their main engines had been completely broken somehow, so we decided to tow them. After a week and being on the verge of running out of fuel, we found Busan," Ai finishes her explanation and captain Se-yoon starts speaking before Maho can ask her next question.

"Around two months after the earthquakes, North Korean troops started amassing in the borders, so we started preparing for war. What we didn't know at that time was that they were collaborating with an organization named 'the Institute'." The man pauses and sighs a little. "At first, it was a few soldiers and vehicles here and there, but then, around seven months after the start the war, while we were on the brink of winning, they revealed the true extent of their forces. Not only did they have numerical superiority and advanced technology, but they also had certain individuals that could do things akin to magic," he says and turns to glance at Miho, then turns to look back at Maho.

 _Ether users,_ Miho instantly thinks and like he has somehow read her mind, the man nods once.

"It was a bloodbath. The army got pushed back in our original borders in less than a year, and almost two years after the war had began, we found ourselves all the way to Busan. In the sea and at the air we faired much better, though with what I saw today, I doubt we'll have this advantage for much longer.

"Then what was your plan? Why did you risk yourselves to bring Miss Inui back to Japan?" Maho asks and the captain hesitates to answer for a moment.

"We... We were supposed to transfer Inui from Busan to Nagato and ask for help from the Japanese government with the pretense of defending the school carriers and their students," he says and lowers his head. "I know it's shameful using the girls and their current position as a bargaining chip to ask for help, but we had no other choice. Though it seems this plan was a bust, since there's no Japanese government or even the JSDF."

"About that, Blackout might be able to help you," Miho says and everyone turns to look at her.

"How can you be so sure?" the captain asks. "If what you told me is true, Blackout is a PMC. What would they get out from helping us? And in the first place, they don't have near enough forces to turn the tide of a war."

"I never said they would do it for free, or without gaining something in return," Miho counters. "But they have their own ways to turn the tide of a battle and even a war."

Everyone looks silently at her for a few moments, then the captain sits up and bows.

"There aren't any better choices, so I'd like to meet your employer, if that's possible of course," he says and Miho turns to her sister.

"Sister, could you have the Fa 223 fly as back at Blackout's base? And I'll have to make a phone call in the morning in St. Gloriana."

* * *

 **At the same time**

 **Underground Lab, Location Unknown**

In a white corridor deep under the surface of the earth, two female figures walk on it.

One is a woman on her mid twenties, around one hundred and seventy-eight centimeters tall, having curly, blond hair that turn brown at its edges and light brown eyes. She is wearing a white shirt under a white lab coat, a short skirt, black pantyhose and black high heels, while holding a pen and a clipboard.

The second one is a woman somewhere in her mid to late thirties, with long, dark brown hair that go just under her shoulders and dark brown eyes. She wears a brown cloak that completely covers her body, making it hard to see what clothes she is wearing. Her expression is a stoic one, showing no emotions whatsoever.

"Hmm... So your name is Shirley Aso...," the blonde woman says and turns to look at the woman. "Nice to meet you! My name is Kiara Henson! I'm the head scientist in this lab!" she says cheerfully, then lifts her index finger in surprise. "Oh, almost forgot. If you decline our job offer, we'll have to dispose you, since you have seen a lot of confidential things." she smiles at Shiho, causing her to sweatdrop mentally.

"Anyway!" she continues, turning to look forward. "You got a really weird name and a funny pronunciation. Are you from abroad?" she asks.

"Yes," Shiho answers curtly, though the woman turns to look at her, like she expects more information. "I was on a business trip when the earthquakes happened, so I got stuck here."

"I see," Kiara mutters. "Well, if you accept this job, you won't have to worry about money or a place to stay anymore. And it is a pretty easy job too! You just have to observe and note some values from a few indicators and give me the numbers! Pretty easy, right?"

"Then why haven't you find anyone to cover this position? It seems like everyone can do it," Shiho asks and Kiara grins slightly.

"You see, Shirley, most people want to bail out after seeing in what they have to participate in. Of course we can't allow them to go back and tell anyone about our experiment, so we make them 'disappear'," Kiara says, then points at Shiho. "I hope you aren't one of these people."

Passing through an automatic door and entering a locker room, Kiara stops and points at one of the lockers.

"This locker will be yours. For now, please throw away this cloak and grab a lab coat from inside; proper clothes will be issued to you when we take your body measurements."

Doing as instructed, Shiho removes her cloak and grabs a lab coat from the assigned locker, quickly wearing it.

"Now then, let's go. The experiment is about to start."

Passing through another automated door, Shiho finds herself in a small observation room that is embedded at the side of a massive space. Descending the flight of stairs that pass between the rows of seats and reaching the glass panels that allow vision inside the massive space, she widens her eyes in awe and surprise, as she spots something breathtaking at the middle of it.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Kiara grins as she stops next to Shiho and looks at the massive orb of rainbow colored Ether, with several forcefields keeping it in place. At the floor of the massive space, several scientists and vehicles, as well Gears go this and that way, typing things on terminals or writing down numbers and formulas in clipboards.

"What is this?" Shiho asks after she recovers from her momentary shock.

"I'm sorry, but I can't tell you," Kiara says. "Classified information."

"Ah, so this is the new recruit?" asks a voice, and turning around, Shiho finds a man wearing a white uniform with black tron-like lines all over it. He has very short, black hair and gray eyes, and looks like he is a veteran of a war. Walking to Kiara and taking her clipboard, he quickly skims over everything that is written, then hands it back and looks over the window panels.

"The experiment is about to start?" he asks and Kiara nods several times.

"Y-Yes, Sir," she says, then she sees that Shiho looks at the man with a questioning gaze.

"Shirley, this is our boss," she says and the man turns to look at her.

"Eli Lawrence," he says and raises his hand for a handshake. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Shirley Aso."

"The pleasure is all mine," she says and shakes the man's hand.

"Well then, Miss Shirley, let's see if you'll be able to handle your work," he says as an alarm starts beeping and the people in the massive room start moving towards the exits, only a fraction of them remaining inside. From one of the exits, several people and a vehicle come out, stopping in front of a stasis cell that is directly underneath the orb, various cables connecting to it and a massive one rising to the orb, connecting to the flat nodes that produce the forcefield around it.

Out of the vehicle, two Gears exit, dragging a naked and bound girl towards the stasis cell.

"What is this?" Shiho widens her eyes in surprise and shock, but Eli and Kiara say nothing.

Shiho can clearly see the girl struggling to get away, but once she gets put inside the cell, the magnetic shackles on her wrists and ankles lock in certain places inside it, completely restraining the girl. Closing the front of the cell, the men and the vehicle move out, as a second alarm starts beeping. Although Shiho is fairly far away from the girl, she can clearly see the girl's terrified face as she flails her body in a desperate attempt to escape. As the machine starts shining brightly, the girl starts screaming as if experiencing excruciating pain, a strange purple aura leaving her body. The strange energy quickly travels through the massive cable and starts collecting on the orb, like it is being consumed by it. As all the energy gets consumed, the orb releases a wave of energy that washes over the room, shaking everything a little.

But as Shiho looks back at the girl, she feels her stomach churn. As the front of the cell opens and the magnetic restraints unlock, her limp body falls to the ground. A few guards rush to lift it and move it for disposal, as the personnel that had left the room enters again.

"Well, Miss Shirley? What's your answer?" Eli asks as he takes an intimidating step towards Shiho and reveals a pistol from behind his back, pointing it at her.

"Do decide quick. We don't have all day."

* * *

 **A/N: Yes, it took more than one month again to write the chapter! Though this time I had a lot less free time because of university exams. I hope you liked the chapter, and as the title suggests, it is to prepare the stage of what is about to follow. Also, special thanks to SeekerMeeker for sending Mollia, SuperSwanky69 for sending Augustus, Dark-Silver96 for sending Arashi and E-50MasterRace for sending two Ether Lords that haven't made their debut yet. In the next chapter, our heroes travel to America, while the Ooarai teams start their preparations to go to save the day in Busan. As always, please review the story, follow and favorite if you liked it and have a good day/night!**


	34. Chapter 34: Change of Plans

**The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 34: Change of Plans**

* * *

 **7th of July, 2 Y.A**

 **In a forest near Ether Force's Main Base**

In a wide dirt road that passes between the trees of an unknown forest residing near the Ether Force's main base, a tank slowly advances on it, its size making it difficult to maneuver and not hit the trees next to it. Painted with a camouflage pattern in the colors of dark pink, dark purple and dark violet, as well painted in the hull's frontal, upper plate with a chibi bunny that has two evil, red eyes and holds a pair of knives, the tank stands out in the green foliage like a sore thumb, making it an easy target. Its massive turret keeps traversing from left to right, the two 130mm cannons that it houses silently scanning the environment in front of them. Normally on the sides of the turret, two belt-fed M134 Miniguns hang on metal supports, which for now are folded on its top in order for the tank to fit on the dirt road. Despite this, the Miniguns can still move around, scanning the trees for any hidden enemies. Inside the tank are six girls, namely the members of Ooarai's Rabbit Team.

"This is boring..." Karina says from the driver's seat, lazily looking at the road in front of her through her vision ports. "This tank is slow and sluggish!"

"Don't complain, Karina," Azusa says as she looks through her cupola's vision ports, in her thighs lying a PDA that controls the remotely controlled .50 cal machine gun that is in front of her cupola. "It might be slow and sluggish, but it has a lot of armor."

"And two guns, like our M3 Lee!" Aya says from her position, looking through her ERGS (Enhanced Reality Gunner Sight), which displays a variety of information on it, such as shell path based on weather, wind, inclination and other variables, dispersion values for the shells, as well as highlighting with red the silhouette of enemy vehicles when they get spotted by the tank's automated laser rangefinder. "The only bad thing is that we can't move them independently."

Behind the gun breeches of the two cannons stands Saki and Ayumi, having taken the role of loaders for them.

"And the tank is fairly spacious," Ayumi says as she stands next to the breach. "Plus, the ammo racks are right behind us. Though, the shells are quite heavy, especially since I'm used in loading 75mm ones."

Saki remains silent as always, gazing into the side of the turret with an emotionless expression.

"But won't it be really dangerous if we hit someone with these big cannons?" Yuuki asks from her seat, which is next to Aya. On her hands she holds a PDA that controls the two Miniguns, the words "A.I. Assistance On" flashing on the screen to indicate that the onborad computer is currently controlling them.

"Mr. Mannheim said that the rounds he gave us, as well as the special ammunition the others use, are like Senshadou rounds, meaning they are weaker than their normal counterparts,"Azusa says as she looks at a screen in front of her that shows where the designated targets that have been found from the laser rangefinder are relative to the tank's position. "He said that if one of the munitions has enough power to destroy its target, said munition will disintegrate and cast a barrier over the target to signify it has been eliminated. So everything should be relatively safe."

"But the whole stuff with Ether sure is mind-boggling," Yuuki says as she looks on the camera feeds of her Miniguns in the PDA's screen. "You can do a lot of weird things with it. Not to mention our tank runs on it."

"It's like magic!" Karina says enthusiastically.

 _Boom_

 _Ding_

As a shell hits the tank's frontal, upper hull plate and bounces off it, the onboard computer immediately finds the enemy tank by calculating the shell's path based on the angle it hit the armor, and designates it using the laser rangefinder.

"Aya, new contact, 40 degrees to our right, distance 100 meters!" Azusa says as a small rectangle appears in the screen in front of her, showing the angle and distance of the enemy based on her tank.

As Aya starts rotating the massive turret to bear the cannons upon the enemy, Azusa uses the machine gun's camera to take a better look.

"It looks like Hippo Team's tank!" she informs the others, spotting the characteristically long hull of it and its wheels, since it faces them on an angle from within the forest. It is painted with a woodland pattern camouflage. On the turret's left side is painted the Iron Cross, while on the right is painted an Aquila (Roman Eagle) with the letters "SPQR" written underneath it. On the right side of the hull, several crests of Japanese clans are painted with black paint, as well a chibi hippopotamus at the front of the hull.

"Karina, start moving backwards! Aya, fire one cannon at a time to keep a continuous rate of fire! Yuuki, use the Miniguns to mow down the trees and make room for the cannons!" Azusa orders as another round strikes the side of the turret but ricochet's because of the angle it hits the armor.

"Roger!" everyone responds. Yuuki presses her PDA's screen and disables the AI's assistance, taking manual control of them and guiding their aim with her fingers. As the barrels start spinning and dishing round after round, completely cutting some of the trees in half, pieces of wood flying everywhere and trunks falling to the ground, Hippo Team's tank uses its smoke dischargers, creating a thick smokescreen between them and Rabbit Team.

"Yuuki, stop using the Miniguns," Azusa says through the intercoms and Yuuki obliges, putting them back in the onborad computer's control.

"What do we do now?" Karina asks, their tank still going in reverse, albeit very slowly.

"Karina, stop the tank. Aya, aim at their last known location."

As the tank stops moving, only the sound of its rotating turret echoes inside the crew compartment. Aiming where Hippo Team was last seen, as indicated by a bleeping red dot on her sight, Aya speaks up.

"I'm ready to fire," she says, waiting for Azusa's command to pull the trigger.

An eerie silence descends for a second as Azusa confirms that the cannons are indeed aimed at Hippo Team's last known location by looking at the screen in front of her.

"Fire both cannons," she orders.

Breakline-

"To think that our Panzerkampfwagen IX Legionnaire would be unable to penetrate Rabbit Team's Tank Hunter," Erwin says with a thoughtful expression as she watches the smokescreen through her vision port at the front of the vehicle. Next to her is a screen that shows a bar with a percentage below it. "And our OCU is 54% charged, so we can't use it again."

"Then should we retreat for now?" Oryou asks from the driver's seat, which is next to Erwin.

"We can put up another smokescreen and try to flank them," Caesar suggests, she, too, watching through the cupola's vision ports the thick, gray smoke that's a few meters in front of her tank. "We have spent only half our smoke charges."

"If we can get their rear or their sides, I'm sure our 120mm shells can go through their heavy armor," Saemonza says, still looking through her AVS (Advanced Vision Sight), using thermal imaging to look through the smoke.

"Then lets go with that," Erwin says, but Saemonza quickly speaks up.

"They are aiming at us!" she says as she spots the huge tank's cannons resting their aim on their direction.

"They can see us through the smoke!?" Caesar says in shock as Erwin turns to Oryou.

"Move, now!" she yells and Oryou wastes no time at all, pressing the gas pedal to the max. The tank manages to clear the line of fire in the nick of time, as two massive roars thunder through the forest and two huge shells fly through the smoke, barely missing them and passing through the trees that were behind them.

"That was close," Saemonza comments as she fires through the smoke, the shell getting lost in the smokescreen and a faint sound of metal hitting metal echoing between the trees. Moving forwards far enough so that the smokescreen no longer covers them, they spot the huge tank pointing its turret at their previous location and its rear being towards them.

"Oryou, turn right and make your way towards the dirt road! Saemonza keep aiming at Rabbit's tank and launch the rest of the smoke when I tell you!" Caesar says as the Tank Hunter starts rotating its turret to aim at the Legionnaire, but not its hull, since the dirt road is not wide enough to reliably rotate it without hitting any trees.

Two more thunderous roars echo through the forest as another pair of shells barely miss the tank's hull, crashing through trees once again. Closing the distance to about 50 meters, Rabbit Team's tank starts moving forward in an attempt to either find a place where they can rotate their tank, or exit the forest.

"Saemonza, now!" Caesar says as their tank exits on the road and Saemonza launches the remaining smoke, with a thick smokescreen immediately forming. "Oryou, turn left hard!"

Oryou complies and turns the driving wheel as much as she can, causing the tank to drift to a stop.

As Saemonza rotates the turret and fires a shell into the smokescreen to hit Rabbit team, two shells exit through it, and upon contact with their tank's hull, disintegrate, encasing it inside a green barrier.

"They got us," Erwin says as she slumps on her seat, a cocky smile on her face. "But we'll get them next time."

"We might have hit them too," Oryou says, and as the smokescreen dissipates, they spot the huge tank encased in a green barrier like their own.

"Target is down," Saemonza says as she pulls back from her sight. Caesar opens her cupola's hatch and pulls herself halfway through it, looking at Azusa who has done the same.

"Are you okay girls?" she hears her shout, so she responds.

"Yes!"

 _"To all teams, cease training and report to the Garage Depot immediately,"_ Yuki's voice echoes through Caesar's headset, and as if on cue, the green barrier around them immediately disappears.

"Oryou, take us back to the garage," Caesar says as she dives back inside the tank.

"Something happened?" Saemonza asks, looking at her commander with only her right eye, since she mostly keeps her left one closed.

"Yuki said to stop the training match and return to the garage, though she didn't say why."

"Maybe something serious happened?" Erwin suggests.

"We'll know soon enough," Caesar says.

* * *

 **Half an hour later, Ether Force's Underground Garage**

By the time all the girls had returned to the garage, Yuki was already waiting for them in it, along with Kōrino and Kasai. Because of that, the girls didn't have time to change from their uniforms, which were colored with Blackout's signature black and had the logo of their respective team on the left shoulder.

"Is everyone here?" Anzu asks, she, Momo and Yuzu standing next to Yuki.

"Yes," the girls respond, so Anzu turns to Yuki. "So, what did you want to tell us?"

Looking in front of her, Yuki starts feeling a little nervous with the stares of 27 girls falling on her.

"W-Well," she stutters slightly because of her nervousness, though she quickly composes herself and starts talking. "It's about Chi-Ha Tan and Jatkosota."

At this, almost all the girls start whispering between each other, but Momo steps up to quiet them.

"Hey, stop talking!" she says loudly and the girls comply, the whispers getting lesser and lesser until there is only silence.

"I'll assume you all know about them being stranded in Busan, which is located in South Korea, so I'll tell you what the Director told me on the phone," Yuki continues, though she pauses for a moment to take a deep breath. "Trying to extract the girls from there at the current time, or even somehow get the carriers in an operating state and having them return to Japan on their own is impossible."

"What!?" some of the girls exclaim in surprise, while others look at each other with worried expressions.

"B-But... Can't Blackout send people to get them out?" Azusa asks with great concern, but Yuki shakes her head.

"No. With the Institute controlling all of China, most of Korea and Australia, while not knowing what's going on with the Philippines, Taiwan and Indonesia, the Institute could attack at any moment to seize Japan. Furthermore, they have both air and naval forces, meaning that transporting troops is very risky. And even if Blackout didn't have to worry about any invasions, even if they pooled all their forces and sent them to South Korea, the enemy numbers are too high to turn the tide by normal means."

"Then how will we save them?" Erwin asks and Yuki turns to face her.

"What I'm about to tell you is considered classified information, so I'd be grateful if you kept what you are about to hear a secret," she says and everyone stiffens at the seriousness in her voice, "but the Director and Coordinator have made a preliminary plan. I wasn't told all the details, but all of the Ooarai teams, except for Anglerfish Team obviously, will be shipped along with Kasai and Kōrino in Busan to help defend the city and push back the enemy, then start striking at enemy installations with high strategic value. The end goal will be to push Institute forces out of the Korean peninsula," she finishes explaining and an eerie silence falls throughout the garage.

"Uhm... Can I ask a question?" asks Kasai with a raised hand.

"What is it?" Yuki asks and Kasai lowers her hand.

"I can understand why Blackout would send me and Kōrino to fight, since we can use Ether, and the other girls to support us, but pushing the Institute out of the Korean peninsula is...uhm...I just can't understand how this ties in with saving the school carriers," she says somewhat uneasily and everyone turns to look at Yuki.

"The Director didn't tell me anything else, but I think that the fates of Chi-Ha Tan and Jatkosota are secondary to him." Most of the girls make shocked faces upon hearing this statement, but Yuki continues. "At any rate, he also told me that you'll be moved in Busan in about a month, so I suggest you start preparing yourselves. Dismissed," she says and leaves the girls alone as she starts making her way towards the exit.

 _What wouldn't I give to return back to my simple life in the village. I'm in no way qualified to run an organization like this,_ she thinks, a heavy sigh escaping her mouth. _Miho, please come back quickly._

* * *

 **Nearing Los Angeles International Airport, California. ETA: 10 minutes**

Inside the cargo bay of Blackout's C17 Globe master III, Odysseus sits in one of the sidewall seats, quietly humming to herself and writing something on a small notepad she is currently holding. Next to her sits Annabelle, who has placed her head in the blonde's shoulder in order to sleep, while next to her sits Reiji, and surprisingly Hana, the two of them quietly talking about different things. On the opposite side from them sits Miho, Yukari, Mako, who is currently sleeping, Saori and Tyler.

Thankfully, because of the airplane's size, even after loading the tanks, there was enough space left for the members of both teams to sit at the sidewall seats, or else they'd have to weather the whole trip inside their respective tanks, which would have been very uncomfortable.

"What are you humming?" Annabelle asks a bit groggily as she raises her head from Odysseus' right shoulder and rubs her eyes with her right hand.

"Oh, did I wake you up?" Odysseus asks as she stops writing on her notebook, closing it and putting it inside one of her uniform's pockets along with the pencil she was using.

"No, no, I woke up on my own," Annabelle responds as she catches a glimpse of the notebook for a moment. "What were you doing till now?"

"I was writing a journal," she says and Annabelle develops a curious expression.

"A journal? Never had you for the type of girl that would keep a diary."

"Well, I see you writing in your own diary every day, and it seems kinda fun, so why not try it too?" she says, but Annabelle doesn't look that convinced.

"Hmm... I feel like you are hiding something from me," she says and Odysseus can only chuckle in response.

"Who knows. Maybe I do, maybe I don't," she says and shows a toothy grin to her friend. "Anyway, what do you think about the upgrades Blackout installed in our tank?" she asks and points at the Cerberus, which sports a fair amount of new things on it.

"Well, we got these fancy new blocks you call NERA covering our tank in multiple layers, a laser designator, an APS and a new on-board computer that handles it."

"Good, cause I couldn't remember what the Director had done with the tank," Odysseus laughs quietly, scratching her right cheek.

"Seriously?" Annabelle facepalms, shaking her head in disappointment. "And you are supposed to be our commander..."

"In my defence, I knew that the upgrades would greatly enhance our defence against ATGMs," Odysseus says, then points at the Panzer IV. "I also know that they welded on Miho's tank extra armor, gave it NERA and APS, upgraded the suspension, transmission and engine."

"So you know about the upgrades on that tank, but not yours..."

"They sounded more interesting to me. Though, even with these, it'll only take one shot to disable the tank and probably kill the girls."

"Aren't you an optimist..." Annabelle says sarcastically, and Odysseus turns to look at her and sticks out her tongue. "Can you stop being immature?"

"Nope and never will," she responds with a grin. Scooching closer to Annabelle, Odysseus leans to her and starts whispering on her ear. "Leaving my immaturity aside for now, can you believe how close Reiji has gotten to Hana in these past few days? It's like I'm watching a scripted soap opera playing right in front of me. Now we only need a bit of drama and we can copyright this!"

"And why would you care how close he is to her? Are you waiting for something to happen to cause trouble like you did with Tyler and Saori?" Annabelle turns and whispers at Odysseus with squinted eyes.

"Of course not! What do you think I am, a troublemaker?" Odysseus says indignant. "I simply want to make things more interesting and fun!" she winks at Annabelle and taps her lips with her index finger.

Annabelle immediately understands what that gesture means and blood rushes in her face, making her cheeks turn red.

"You speak to anyone about it, not even your ashes will be found after I'm done with you," Annabelle seethes quietly at the blonde in a mix of fluster and embarrassment.

"Don't worry, I won't," Odysseus chuckles. "It will be our dirty little secret," she winks and Annabelle can't do anything other than let out a heavy sigh.

"I'll have to trust you on that," the redhead says, then feels a strong shake. "Seems like we have landed," she comments and unbuckles her seatbelt. After the airplane lands and taxes near the airport's terminal, the pilot lowers the rear cargo ramp and everyone grabs their stuff and disembark, as numerous mechanics arrive at the plane and start checking its condition and refueling it.

"Any idea what we do now?" Saori asks as she looks around.

"What about this?" Yukari asks and points at a black Humvee that quickly approaches them, with Blackout's insignia painted on both sides.

"That's Blackout's," Tyler says as the Humvee stops in front of them and a man with a black uniform exits from the front passenger seat.

"I assume you are the transfers from Japan?" the man asks as he rounds the jeep and stops in front of the girls.

"Yes sir," Miho responds and snaps the salute, but the man waves at her dismissively.

"No need for salutes or ranks. We are mercenaries, not the military," he says. "You have your transfer orders with you?"

Miho pats her jacket's pockets for a moment, then retrieves a piece of folded paper from one of them and hands it at the man.

"No salutes, ranks and similar bullshit?" Odysseus speaks with a wide grin on her face. "I already like this country!"

"Things are going to be a lot more different than in Japan," Mako blurts out. "I wonder if I can sleep more now."

"Mako!" Saori says and starts berating her.

"Everything seems to be in order," the man says and hands Miho back the paper. "You'll find two Humvees waiting for you outside the airport terminal; they will take you at our HQ and you'll receive further orders from there."

"What about our tanks?" Miho asks as she pockets their transfer orders. The man leans to the right and looks inside the plane's cargo bay, looking at the two tanks and the loadmaster who waits next to the cargo ramp.

"We'll take care of them," he says and signals to the loadmaster with his hand to start removing the cargo straps that tie the tanks down. "I'd also appreciate it if you could unload them out of the cargo bay, since I don't think we have any people that know how to drive them."

"Of course," Miho responds and turns to Mako. "Could you please unload the tank?" she asks and Mako nods silently. Odysseus simply motions at Annabelle and she goes away to unload the Cerberus.

"A few more things before you go," the man says. "First, if you have any weapons on you, please leave them with your personal belongings. Second, we will handle your luggage and transfer them at our base where you'll be staying. It is near Interstate 15, at the part between Victorville and Barstow. I think there was one more thing concerning your assigned positions, but I wasn't given any information about it," he shrugs at the girls. "At any rate, the Director will inform you about it."

Having said his part, he turns around and starts talking with the driver, who has exited the Humvee and looks at the moving tanks that exit from the cargo bay.

"Oh boy, this is going to be a fun trip," Odysseus says and pulls at the collar of her uniform's jacket. "Damn, couldn't we come here at fall or winter? It's too hot!"

"Can't handle a little heat?" Tyler asks, though he too has started sweating from how high the temperature is and the clothing he is wearing.

"Dude, my country's average temperatures are from 35 to 45 °C in summer, unless you live in a mountainous village or in the northern parts," Odysseus looks at Tyler like he has offended her, then points at her clothes. "Plus, wearing a black outfit that covers your whole body is not helping either."

"Ugh, the heat is unbearable," Saori complains as she tries to cool herself by making fanning motions with her hands at her face. "I feel sticky from all the sweat. Seriously, how can you live in a place like this, Tyler?"

"This is nothing. You should see what kind of temperatures places like The Valley of Death in Arizona have in summer. You can literally fry an egg there," Tyler says and slightly grins at the face Saori makes.

"Thankfully they'll have air conditioning and we won't boil to death," Odysseus comments as Annabelle and Mako return to the group.

"And thankfully you'll stop complaining for every little thing that bothers you," Annabelle says, prompting Odysseus to start complaining at how she is not complaining for everything. "Anyway, shall we get going?"

* * *

 **A few minutes later, inside one of the Humvees**

 **Moving on the Interstate 105**

 **Destination, Blackout Headquarters**

"...and as we were driving around the city trying to find an escape route, with me firing the machine gun everywhere I could see enemies, an RPG warhead strikes the front right wheel, causing our Humvee to roll multiple times. I was really lucky cause I was thrown off the vehicle moments before another RPG warhead struck it and it blew up!" Odysseus finishes recounting one of her many adventures during her time in the Third Balkan War. "Since then, I've always made it a rule to man the machine gun in a Humvee. If it has one, of course," she says, standing in the Humvee's hatch that is for the machine gun turret. Inside the vehicle sit Reiji in the front passenger seat, while on the back sit Annabelle, Tyler, and a furiously blushing Saori who is sitting on Tyler's legs, since there isn't enough space inside the cabin.

"Aren't you afraid of a sniper hitting your head?" Annabelle asks and Odysseus taps her head lightly.

"That's why you wear a helmet. Plus, if a sniper hits you, it'll kill you instantly. You'll feel absolutely nothing."

"Then what if you fail to bail out and as the vehicle starts rolling, you get squashed by it?" Reiji turns slightly on his seat and asks, and Odysseus slightly ducks inside the Humvee to look at him.

"Well, shit, I guess I'm gonna have a gruesome death filled with endless pain and agony... At least until my brain gets scattered all over the gray asphalt."

"Why did they only send two Humvees to pick us up?" Tyler asks, directing his question at the driver.

"Ohh, why are you asking such a question, Tyler? Don't you like having Saori sitting on your lap?" Odysseus sneers like a troll, not missing a beat to cause trouble and misunderstanding. Saori's blush immediately flares, locking her gaze down at the Humvee's floor and wishing for the ground to open up and shallow her.

"Could you please not say things like these? Saori is about to explode from her embarrassment," Tyler says to Odysseus.

"N-No... I-I'm fine, Tyler! There's n-nothing embarrassing about this!" Saori stutters, but this causes Odysseus to throw more fuel in the fire.

"Well, if three Humvees had come to pick us up, I guess we could have four people in the first two jeeps, and you two lovebirds could be all alone in the third!" she says with a sultry smile. "Of course the driver could see you, but maybe-OWW!" she cries out in the end as Annabelle punches her in her right thigh to make her stop.

Having reached her limit, Saori turns herself so that she can place her head on Tyler's chest, but she does it with so much force and speed because of her embarrassment, that it's actually like headbutting him.

"Gah! That hurt a lot," Tyler croaks, gently patting Saori's back to get her to calm down a little.

"I think you overstepped your bounds, Odysseus," Annabelle says with a scolding gaze.

"Hey, it's not my fault she gets easily embarrassed!" Odysseus pouts at the redhead.

"That doesn't mean you can bring her on an embarrassing position each time you see her. I can take a joke because I've been with you for almost two years and I've gotten used to it, but she hasn't, so could you please not do this again?" Tyler frowns at Odysseus and the blonde immediately loses her pout, though Reiji interrupts her before she can retort.

"Ahem. If you would let the driver answer," he says and points at the man next to him who was looking at the rest awkwardly through the rear-view mirror.

"Well... We only knew that there were two tank crews that were coming as transfers, so we assumed both of them had at most four members," the man answers.

After a few minutes, the Humvees get off Interstate 105 and start making their way towards South Park, where Blackout's HQ is located.

"Hmm... now that's interesting," Odysseus hums as she looks all around, observing the buildings, the people, and the few cars that pass by every now and then.

"What is it?" Annabelle asks with mild interest, she too looking outside through her window.

"The earthquakes where supposed to be happening everywhere in the world, right?" she asks and everyone inside the jeep nods. "Then how it comes that most buildings are either undamaged, or they have superficial damage?"

"Maybe they were built to be very sturdy? Los Angeles is close to the San Andreas fault, so the building specifications of buildings tend to be very high," Tyler says, looking outside along with Saori.

"Wow... There are so many people here..." Saori comments, looking at all the people that walk in the pavements.

"Los Angeles has, or rather had, a fairly large population. Plus, a lot of famous YouTubers were staying here."

"Think they are still making videos?" Odysseus asks sarcastically, but Tyler answers anyway.

"If the internet still exists, why not? Though I doubt people are still watching videos online when the world has gone to hell," Tyler says.

"I bet fifteen bucks they still watch porn, though."

"Any idea why there are so few cars?" Reiji asks the driver, who glances at him from the corner of his right eye.

"West Coast Coalition reserves most of its petroleum or gasoline for military usage, so only a fraction of the reserves makes it into the commercial market. As you can imagine, the prices are quite high, and only the rich can afford it."

"Then what about Blackout?" Annabelle asks, but the man remains silent for a few seconds before speaking.

"We are currently in a contract with the West Coast Coalition, so they sell us any fuel we might need. Plus, with how things between factions are going, I believe they'll probably make another contract to hire our troops to fight with them."

"Do you know anything about the other factions? Does Blackout operate bases in their territories too?"

"Well, it operated some bases here and there, but the ones in the State Alliance and in Texas were closed, since both factions didn't really hire any mercenaries. The State Alliance is backed by a powerful organization, while Texas just hates outsiders."

"Wait, wasn't the base full of American mercenaries? Why would they consider them as outsiders?" Saori asks somewhat confused, but the man shakes his head.

"Blackout is a Japanese PMC, the problem's not so much the mercenaries, but the origin of Blackout itself," the man answer, then continues. "We also had a base inside the Holy Trinity State's territory, but it mysteriously went dark after a few months of the faction's creation. A team was sent to investigate, but when they returned, they were all traumatized. Whatever they had witnessed, it was really, really bad..."

"Great... Things just keep getting better and better..." Odysseus says sarcastically.

"We have arrived," the driver says as he turns in an intersection and South Park comes into full view. Driving for a few more meters, he turns left in a tall building, driving down the ramp it has in front of it and down the underground garage.

Getting out of the vehicles, two armed guards approach both teams.

"They are the new transfers," one of the drivers says, having exited the vehicle and making his way towards the elevator that connects the underground parking garage with the rest of the floors.

"Can you show us your transfer orders?" one of the guards asks and Miho obliges, giving the paper at the man. "My colleague here will perform a pat-down to check you don't have anything illegal with you," the man says and the second guard steps forward.

"If you two boys could come over here," he says at Reiji and Tyler, pointing in front of him. "As for you, ladies, you'll have to wait for a little while."

"Hmm? Why is that?" Annabelle asks.

"We had complaints from some of the female staff that the procedure is "invasive" and akin to sexual harassment, so it was decided that female staff will be checked by female guards only," the second guard says as he pats down Tyler to see if he is hiding anything.

"Seriously?" Odysseus says in disbelief, raising one of her eyebrows. "Are these girls the type of die-hard feminists or what? I'd get it if the guards checking them groped them or did something similar, but I don't think Blackout can afford employing people like them."

"I'm not paid enough to care about things like these, so I just follow orders," the man says, having finished checking Tyler and doing the same to Reiji.

"The orders seem to be fine," the first guard says and hands them back to Miho, then turns at the second guard. "Hey, I'm gonna get Jeanne to come and check the girls, wanna tell her to bring you something?"

"Yeah, tell her to bring me a sandwich, I'm starving," he answers.

"OK," the first guard answers and makes his way to the elevator.

"Since we have some time, why don't we discuss how we should start our investigation?" Odysseus asks quietly, looking at the lone guard to make sure he hasn't heard her.

"We should start by learning the layout of the building and exploring it," Miho suggests.

"Since we are looking for spies, we probably shouldn't tell anyone about this; not even the Director," Annabelle says.

"I think that the spies would either try to get positions with a lot of power so that no one would question their actions, or positions that would ensure their cover wouldn't get blown immediately," Mako says and everyone nods.

"So we need to somehow find records of everyone that works here," Reiji suggests, but Odysseus speaks up.

"That's assuming the spies are in the HQ and not in the base." Looking at the lone guard, who looks at them with a somewhat suspicious gaze, an idea pops in her mind. "Hey, can I ask you a question?" she asks the guard loudly.

"Sure," the man shrugs, though his suspicious gaze doesn't lessen even a bit.

"How many of the office staff are women, and how many of the mercenaries are women?"

The guard widens slightly his eyes in surprise. "And why you ask?"

"Simple curiosity. Back in Japan there were a lot of girls that were mercenaries, so I want to see if it is the same here," she answers with a smile.

"Most mercenaries here are guys. There are very few girls who will risk their lives for some dollar bills. Having said that, most office workers here are women."

"Great, thanks a lot," she says, then turns at the rest. "Guess what, Tyler? You are gonna have to ask for a few favors in the future," Odysseus grins like a villain at the boy, who instinctively takes a step back.

"No, no, no, no, I don't want to have to do anything with your shady schemes that will surely get me in trouble!" Tyler immediately says, almost shouting at the blonde.

"Oh come on, I didn't ask you to go and sleep with them! Just mesmerize them with whatever you attract girls and have them do you a few favors!" Odysseus says and Saori's eyes almost pop out of their sockets.

"What!? Absolutely not!" she shouts and grabs Tyler's arm, pulling him closer to her and hugging him. "Don't you dare get him in trouble again!"

"Woah, chill out girl! I'm not going to steal your boyfriend!" Odysseus shouts back and raises her hands in front of her. "But with him, we could really make our lives easier with-"

"I don't care! You are not using him for anything!"

"Uhm... Excuse me, is everything alright?" the guard asks, but he gets ignored by everyone. "Why am I even here if everyone ignores me..."

"Saori, please calm down," Hana says to her friend, but she seems too focused in arguing with Odysseus to hear her.

"Miss Nishizumi, what do we do now?" Yukari asks Miho, but a loud voice echoes in the garage.

"Is everything alright?"

Turning at the direction of the voice, they find a woman with long, brown hair tied in a ponytail and brown eyes walking towards them, wearing full military gear and holding a sandwich.

"You sure took your time, Jeanne," the guard says, catching the sandwich the woman throws at him with a lot of force. "You sure are grumpy today."

"Woke up like this, plus I met Johnson and his squad, so I'm really not in the best of moods," Jeanne says and then looks at the girls. "You want me to search them?"

"Yep," the man answers and the woman just stares at him for a few seconds. "What?"

"Seriously now, are you afraid of touching a girl?" she asks as she turns to face the girls.

"Unless I want to be accused of sexual harassment on teenagers, yes," the man answers curtly.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Jeanne waves her hand dismissively. "Okay girls, come here one at a time. I'll have to pat down your body, so don't start yelling where I'm touching, okay?"

After a few minutes, Jeanne finishes patting down the last girl.

"You are all clear, so take the elevator up to the first floor and go to the front desk and ask for your IDs. They'll also tell you what to do next," she says at the girls, but then she notices Tyler and blood rushes immediately in her cheeks.

"W-Well, that's all for now. See you around," the woman waves at them and goes to stand next to the other guard.

"Have a good day," the man says at the two teams as they enter the elevator. After the doors close, he turns to his colleague. "Are you alright? Your cheeks are quite red," he asks in a worried tone.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," she answers with a thoughtful expression. "But this boy..."

"You mean the blonde one?" he asks, but then he widens his eyes in understanding. "Oooh, I see. So you like the boy," he says, but then makes a confused expression. "But... Don't you like older guys?"

"Yeah, which is why I find this weird. We could have at lleas seven years difference in age, even a decade."

"Think it was love at first sight?"

"Not in the slightest. More like lust at first sight."

"Well, I could help y-"

"Don't even think about it!" she glares at the man, who takes a few steps back.

"I'm joking, I'm joking!" he laughs awkwardly, then starts eating his sandwich.

"Right..." Jeanne deadpans.

* * *

"We have verified your credentials," the receptionist behind the front desk says, placing on it several ID cards that have various information on them. "These are your personalized ID cards. Please don't lose them, as you won't be able to enter the HQ or the base, neither get paid your monthly salary," she informs them and everyone nods.

"Can I ask a question?" Miho asks the receptionist.

"Sure," she answers with a smile.

"Where is the Director's office? We are supposed to report to him once we arrive."

"You'll find his office on the 30th floor. You can take the middle elevator there," she says and points at the side, where three elevator doors are.

"Thank you very much," Miho responds and bows.

"Will we even fit inside this tiny box?" Saori asks as she presses the button for the elevator and the doors slide open. "It barely has space for six people, maybe seven if we squeeze hard enough."

"Why not have five people take the middle elevator and the rest use one of the others and go up till the floor it goes, then use the stairs all the way to the 30th floor?" Annabelle suggests and Odysseus immediately grabs Saori and Tyler and drags them at the next elevator.

"We'll take this one. See you in the office!" she says at the rest as she pulls Annabelle inside and presses the button of the last floor it goes.

"That was sudden," Hana says as she looks at the indicator over the elevator counting up.

"Isn't she a little bit too impulsive?" Yukari asks as everyone enters the middle elevator and Miho presses the button for the 30th floor.

"But it matches her character," Mako says, but then Reiji, who has been "left behind", speaks up.

"While that's true, there is always a reason behind her "impulsive" nature. Be it she is bored and wants to pass her time, or she has thought of something more elaborate, she'll grasp any chance that will present itself in front of her."

"So why would she take Saori with her and leave you behind?" Yukari asks Reiji.

 _If I'm honest, probably to push me closer to Hana._ Looking at her, Hana looks back at him with a serene smile. _Yep, that's totally her plan._

"Probably to try and convince her about Tyler," Mako says.

 _Ding_

"Seems like we have arrived," Miho says and steps out of the elevator. Looking around, she finds this floor a lot smaller than she first expected it, with a carpeted floor and painted walls. A couple meters away from her is a desk with a woman behind it, probably a secretary, while on the left side of the room are two big, wooden doors that have a pair of guards in front of them. There are also a few chairs opposite from the office's doors for people who are waiting to enter the Director's office.

"Seems we have arrived first," Miho mutters to herself as she approaches the secretary's desk, the others following close by.

"Uhm, excuse me," she says at the secretary, who is either doing a job on the computer, or is playing Solitaire.

"Ah, welcome. May I see your IDs?" the woman asks with a smile and everyone gives her their IDs. As she starts checking them by entering the information in the system to see that they indeed exist in the database and are not forged, Odysseus and Annabelle arrive.

"Finally!" Odysseus exhales as she opens the staircase door that is next to the elevator, slightly panting and sweating.

"Next time, please don't run in the stairs," Annabelle says from behind her, she too panting and sweating. "You almost tripped and hit your head on the handrail."

"It's not my fault we had to cover ten floors to get here," she answers, then sees the rest of the girls and Reiji. "Oh, so we didn't make it before you..."

"Where is Tyler?" Reiji asks.

"With Saori, taking their sweet time walking up the stairs," she curtly responds, but Annabelle speaks up.

"What she means is that instead of running up ten floors, they chose to walk," she says and Odysseus pouts at her.

"But you ran with me," she says and Annabelle turns to look at her.

"Because I can't leave you out of my sight for even a moment. You might blow up the whole building for all we know," the redhead responds.

"Thank you for your patience," the secretary tells Miho and hands her back the IDs. "Can I please have your IDs?" she asks Odysseus and Annabelle, and both comply, handing the secretary their IDs. After checking them, she hands them back and looks at Miho. "Now then, how can I help you?"

"We are the new transfers and we were told to report to the Director," Miho responds.

"Ah, I see, I see!" the secretary exclaims, picking up the phone's handset and pressing a few numbers. "Yes, Director? The newly transfered teams have arrived. Yes, they are waiting outside. Understood."

Putting the handset down to terminate the call, she turns at the girls. "Miss Nishizumi and Miss..." she pauses for a second and looks at the computer screen, before turning back. "... Papaioannou, please enter the Director's office to report. The rest of you, please wait here."

Obliging, Miho and Odysseus step inside the office, the guards closing the doors behind them. The office is an exact copy of the one back in Japan, which strikes the girls as an oddity.

"Why is the office exactly as the one back in Japan?" Odysseus mutters to herself, but the man who sits behind the office hears her and answers.

"That's because, when this HQ first opened so many years ago, the founder of this company was its Director."

Turning at the direction of the voice, they spot a young man around his late thirties, with brown hair and eyes, wearing a black uniform with a five-star insignia over the right shoulder.

"Director!" Miho turns to face the man and salutes him, while Odysseus adopts a flat expression and points at her friend.

"You don't expect me to salute you, do you?" she deadpans.

"No, of course not," he says as he waves at Miho to lower her hand. "You are mercenaries, or as the official term goes, "contractors", so you are not obliged to adhere to standard military protocol. But I appreciate the gesture. It shows respect."

The man stands up from his leather seat and raises his right hand for a handshake. "I'm Director Norton."

"Nishizumi Miho," Miho introduces herself as she shakes Norton's hand, then bows. "It is nice to meet you."

"Elpida Papaioannou," Odysseus introduces herself, briefly shaking the man's hand. "Just call me Odysseus."

"Please, have a seat," Norton gestures at the two luxurious chairs placed in front of the desk.

As everyone sits down, he procures a paper from one of the desk's drawers. "Before we start talking about business, would you prefer talking in English or Japanese, Miss Nishizumi?" Norton asks Miho, which surprises her a little.

"Oh! Uhm... I'd prefer Japanese if you don't mind, since my English isn't that good," she responds and the man nods, pressing a button on the phone placed on top of his desk. Several seconds later, the secretary enters the office.

"Did you call for me, Director?" she asks and Norton nods.

"Yes. Miss Nishizumi is from Japan, and her English isn't that good, so could you translate for her?" he asks.

"Yes, of course Director!" she nods and quickly walks over to Norton.

"Good. Now then, let us start your report," he says and starts scanning the paper he holds on his hand. "Both of you have been transfered to act as extra security for our headquarters. Normally that wouldn't have been possible, since you are tank crews," he glances for a moment at Miho, then Odysseus, then back at the paper. "But thankfully you have received infantry training."

Putting down the paper, he looks both girls in the eyes.

"I'll be honest with you, we have enough security for the HQ as it is. For that reason, and some others, I'll be transferring you under West Coast Coalition's control as part of the hired mercenary forces. Of course your monthly payment will change accordingly."

While Miho raises an eyebrow at this, more out of surprise than confusion, Odysseus practically springs herself upright, banging her clenched fists against the Director's desk.

"No! We were sent here to act as security and that's what we are going to do," she says with a chilling tone, her expression slowly revealing her silent anger. While Miho and Norton remain somewhat unfazed by this, the secretary takes a step back from the desk, with cold sweat forming on her forehead.

Norton spends a few long seconds looking at Odysseus, then adopts a dismissive gaze.

"Listen, the moment you set foot here, your transfer was completed, therefore you are under my command. So, you'll do as I say," Norton says, supporting his arms with his elbows on the desk and crossing his fingers in front of him. "I have enough infantry in the base to replace your posts here. Tank crews are a rarity here, especially ones that have their own tanks, so of course I'll have you on the battlefield rather than rusting here waiting for something inevitable."

"I don't care. We were sent here to act as security and that's what we will do!" she says again, this time raising her voice.

"Odysseus calm down, you aren't helping with the situation," Miho says and the blonde turns her head at her.

"If you want to send your crew to their deaths, Miho, then be my guest!" Odysseus yells. "I'm not sending my friends to a warzone, much less to the frontlines!"

"If you refuse to cooperate, I'll remove you from your position and have someone else take over your team," Norton says and Odysseus looks at him with a furious expression.

"And who do you think you are to do something like that?"

"The one running this place," Norton says and stands up, looking at Odysseus with an unyielding gaze.

"Do this and I'll blow up this entire building."

"Are you threatening me?"

"I'm only warning you."

"Odysseus, that's enough," Miho says sternly. "Calm down. We have been in plenty of fights, large scale ones too. This isn't anything new for us."

A few long moments pass, with Odysseus silently looking at Miho.

"So what's your answer, Miss Papaioannou?" Norton asks her.

"Fine, I'll play along. But should something happen to my team, I'm coming for your head," she seethes quietly, then slumps down on her chair and starts mumbling to herself.

"I'm really sorry about this," Miho apologizes and bows, with the secretary translating for the Director.

"It's okay," Norton says and sits on his own seat. "You'll be transferred on a West Coast Coaltion's army base in two days. Till then you can either stay on our base, or explore the city if you have money to stay in a hotel. You are free to go."

"Clarette, don't go yet. I want to discuss a few things with you," Norton says at the secretary and procures a few documents from his desk's drawers.

Odysseus quickly stands up and makes her way out of the office, opening one of the doors with a loud bang, somewhat scaring everyone that is waiting outside.

"Is everything okay?" Annabelle asks worried after seeing the blonde's angry expression.

"Don't want to talk right now," she says quietly and makes her way to the elevator.

"What happened, Miho?" Hana asks Miho as she exits the office, the guards closing the doors behind her.

"Our assignment changed," she sighs. "We won't be acting as security for the HQ."

"Then what will we be doing?" Yukari asks Miho.

"We will transfer under this faction's control as part of the hired mercenary forces." At this, everyone develops surprised or worried expressions.

"No surprise Odysseus is like that, we are heading into a goddamn warzone!" Annabelle grumbles and turns around, only to find Odysseus missing and the elevator going down. "I'll be waiting for you with Odysseus in front of the building!" she says, then breaks into a sprint, taking the stairs to try and catch up with Odysseus before she does anything stupid. Opening the door that leads to the main staircase, she starts descending the stairs as fast as she can, some times even jumping two or three of them. Exiting at the twentieth floor, she luckily finds one of the elevators still there, so she quickly enters and presses the button for the first floor (or ground floor for the British).

"God I wish she doesn't have that much of a lead," she pants and wipes the sweat that has formed on her forehead with her right arm.

"Are you okay?"

Turning to her left, she finds a tall, young, bald Afro-American man dressed in a black uniform gazing at her, so she quickly composes herself and turns at the him.

"Yes, just trying to catch up with a friend of mine," she smiles at him. "We got separated since we are new here and I'm trying to find her before she does anything that might inconvenience others."

"You just transferred here?" he asks and Annabelle nods. "Jaiden Spears. My friends call me Jade," he introduces himself.

"Annabelle Morris," Annabelle introduces herself.

"Nice to meet you, Annabelle. Have you transferred as an office staff or as a mercenary?"

"I've transferred as a member of a tank crew. The friend I'm trying to catch up with is my commander."

"Tank crew? That's rare," he says in surprise. "Most people can't afford to maintain a tank, even if they have one in the first place."

"Well, it's a long story."

 _Ding_

"Looks like this is my stop," the man says as the elevator stops on the third floor and its doors slide open. "I'm the leader of an infantry squad, so I guess we'll see each other on the battlegrounds soon enough."

Exiting the elevator, he turns and tells her one more thing. "Since you have just transferred, a fair warning. If you meet Johnson or his squad, avoid them at all costs. They are really bad people."

As the doors close and the elevator starts descending once again, Annabelle pushes the last comment at the side of her head for the time being, since she needs to find Odysseus. Reaching the first floor, she steps out of the elevator and starts looking around for her blonde friend.

"Where is she?" she mutters to herself as she looks around for Odysseus. Not finding her inside, she moves towards the building's exit. Exiting through the opened glass doors, she finds the blonde standing at the edge of the sidewalk, looking at the ground with an annoyed expression.

"Odysseus!" she says loudly to get her attention, but as she starts walking quickly to her, she collides with someone.

"Ah, I'm really sorry!" she immediately apologizes as she sees a cup of coffee falling and spilling on the ground.

"Look what you have done to my uniform!" the man shouts, and as Annabelle can clearly see, brown liquid has splashed all over his uniform's jacket and is slowly rolling down to his pants thanks to gravity.

"Hey, Ashton, what happened?"

Turning at the voice, Annabelle sees five people approaching her and the man.

"Look what this bitch did, Johnson!" the man shouts at one of the approaching men, and Annabelle widens her eyes.

"Come on, Ash, don't speak for the girl like that," a man a few years older than Annabelle says. He is 180cm tall, has blue eyes and blond hair pulled back and also wears a uniform similar to Jaiden's. "I'm sure she didn't do it on purpose."

Annabelle looks at the man and he smiles at her, sending a chill down her spine. _This must be the Johnson guy Jaiden told me to avoid. I'll just go away quietly and hope Odysseus hasn't gone away._

But as she tries to move away, the man named Johnson grabs her by the wrist and pulls her closer to him. "Though you still need to repay him for dirtying his uniform. How about keeping us some company? We just got paid, so we could go for a few drinks."

"If that's the case, why don't you take me with you?"

Turning on his right, Johnson manages to see a fist coming his way, before he hears a crack and feels a burning sensation in his nose. Stumbling a few steps backwards, he cups his hands on his bleeding nose and looks up at his assailant.

"How about starting with some Bloody Mary, huh?" Odysseus asks sarcastically and punches the man in the guts, forcing him on his knees, then kicks him square on his chest, causing him to fall down on his back. Some of the people walking on the sidewalk stop to see what's going on.

"I'm in a really bad mood right now," Odysseus says as she presses Johnson's throat with her right boot, steadily applying more and more pressure with the intent of caving in his trachea. The man starts heaving and coughing uncontrollably as the blood from his broken nose starts flowing down his throat. "And you have presented yourself as the perfect punching bag! You don't mind if I vent my anger on you, do you?"

"What the hell are you doing? Are you trying to kill him!?" Annabelle yells at Odysseus and pulls her away from the man. Johnson starts gasping for air and coughing blood, and his friends rush to help him.

"Pieces of shit like him don't deserve to live, Annabelle," Odysseus responds back, with Annabelle still holding her by the wrist.

"Look, I understand how you feel about the change in the assignment, but venting your anger and frustration this way is unacceptable," Annabelle says and looks around at all the bystanders that have stopped and are whispering between them. "You are also making a scene. Just let it go, okay?"

Odysseus keeps gazing at Annabelle for a few seconds, before sighing and yanking her hand out of the redhead's grasp. "Fine, fine, whatever you say..." she says slowly with an annoyed expression.

"You won't get away with this, bitch!" Johnson, who is now standing, spats at Odysseus, taking an intimidating step towards her. "Next time we meet, I'll show you what real pain means!"

"Yeah, yeah, keep barking like the good dog you are," Odysseus waves her hand dismissively at him, as he and his friends go away.

"What did we miss?" Tyler asks as he, Reiji and the rest of the girls approach them.

"Nothing much," Odysseus answers with an indifferent expression.

"So people threatening you is nothing much?"

"It wouldn't be the first time."

"Excuse me."

Turning behind her, Odysseus finds two men dressed in black suits who stand in front of a white limousine with tinted windows.

"Our boss is waiting for Mister Davis and his friends inside the limousine, so if you'd be kind enough to enter," one of the men says and opens the limousine's door.

"Great, now the fucking mafia is on our tail..." she grumbles and looks at Tyler. "Anything you haven't told us?" Odysseus smirks when she sees Tyler facepalm.

"How did she even found out I was here?" Tyler sighs. "It hasn't been even an hour since I set foot in the city..."

"Tyler... what's going on?" Saori asks him with a concerned expression.

"Don't worry about it... Everything will make sense when we enter," he answers and makes his way inside the limousine, quickly followed by Saori.

"Let's hope we won't have to go for a swim in the docks later," Odysseus jokes and enters inside, followed by Annabelle.

"This will be entertaining," Reiji chuckles as he enters. After him, Hana, Yukari, Mako, and finally Miho enter.

Miho gasps slightly as she enters, seeing the carpeted floor and the leather seats inside the limousine. Sitting next to Mako, the two suited men enter too and close the door behind them, sitting at the sides of a woman that sits opposite from Miho and her friends.

The woman seems to be around her early forties, has flowing blonde hair that drape over her left shoulder and a pair of bright blue eyes. She wears an one-piece, silk dress colored bright violet, white, silk gloves and bright purple high heels, while on her thighs sits a sun hat with a large brim and a black bow tie on its side. The woman knocks two times on a tinted window that is behind her to her left, and the limousine starts moving.

"It's been a while, hasn't it, Tyler?" the woman speaks in a soft and elegant voice, but Tyler simply looks at her with a simple expression.

"I'm really curious to know how you learned I was coming back," he says and the woman giggles slightly. "I haven't been here for more than an hour, yet here you are, waiting for me and my friends in a fancy limo."

"I have ears and eyes everywhere in the city, Tyler. I know everything that is happening inside my turf," she answers with a dangerous gleam in her eyes.

"Uhm... Excuse me, but who are you? And how do you know Tyler?" Saori asks hesitantly and woman turns to face her.

"Me? My name is Lottie Snow, young girl. I'm the one running Los Angeles' underworld," she says with a smile and everyone adopts alarmed faces, except for Tyler, Odysseus who is on the verge of bursting out in laughter, Annabelle who is smirking at Tyler and Reiji who pops a grin for a moment. Saori turns her head slowly and looks at Tyler with widened eyes, before turning to look back at the woman.

"Me and Tyler have a long history; I've known him his whole life."

"H-His whole life? T-Tyler...?" Saori whispers at her boyfriend, who can only sigh in defeat.

"Everyone, let me introduce her again," he says and gestures at the woman. "She is named Lottie Snow, and she is my mother."

Silence feels the cabin as the Anglerfish members look at Tyler with surprised expressions, then slowly turn to look at the woman.

"Oh, I thought you had told them about me," the woman says in surprise, her beautiful face forming a saddened expression.

"Well, I can't exactly tell them my mother is the mafia, can I?" he deadpans.

"How rude!" the woman says offended at what her son has said. "Don't put me in the same category as these amateurs!" She takes a few seconds to recompose herself, then beams a shining smile at everyone. "Sorry about this. It is nice meeting you all." Looking at Tyler, a dangerous gleam appears in her eyes once more. "Now then, Tyler, why don't you tell me the reason you are here after missing for this long? I'm sure this is going to be an interesting story."

 _I feel like my luck just run out,_ he sighs mentally as he starts explaining to his mother what had happened these past two years and where he had been.

* * *

 **A/N: Another chapter done! Expect things to go down in around two to three chapters. Thank you for following the story, especially since chapters have been getting published at a later date than they should have had.** **As always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**


	35. Chapter 35: Last Day of Peace

**A/N: Finally done with this chapter! September has been one hell of a month, especially since my job took most of my free time. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter. Follow and favorite if you like the story, and leave a review if you have something to say about it.**

* * *

 **The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 35: Last Day of Peace**

* * *

"So... You're telling me you and your friend over there got chased by a horde of girls, while trying to sneak into the dorms undetected to give these girls over there some medicine..." Lottie says in amusement, the corners of her mouth twitching ever so slightly from the urge to laugh.

"Technically, they were chasing me. Reiji was there to make sure they wouldn't get me," Tyler clarifies and Lottie giggles a little.

"Is that so?" she asks rhetorically, and a nostalgic expression forms on her face. "Ah, this reminded me of your father in his younger days."

"Told you it was genetic," Odysseus leans and whispers in Annabelle's ear, causing the redhead to quickly cover her mouth and look away to hide her amusement.

Noticing this, Lottie turns at Annabelle with a questioning gaze. "Was there something funny at what I said?"

"Ah, no, no, nothing funny," Odysseus answers immediately, shaking her head a little.

"Anyway, who are these girls, Tyler? Are they all your girlfriends?" Lottie asks and all the girls, minus Odysseus and Annabelle, blush at this, looking away in embarrassment.

"Mom, stop the teasing, alright? You should know who they are from what I told you earlier," Tyler groans, though a hint of embarrassment is mixed in his voice.

"But I haven't seen you for over two years! As your mother, is the least I can do," she says with a genuine smile, though it turns into a pout in the end. "But I have to say I am quite disappointed in you."

"Huh?" Tyler utters in confusion, having no idea what Lottie is talking about.

"To be a mere loader, how sad... I expected you to be at least a commander. Or even better, have a platoon of tanks under your command. What would your grandpa say?"

"Is this about how I should improve my leadership in order to be ready for when I inherit your or dad's position?" Tyler asks with a flat face and Lottie nods.

"Of course, Tyler. I inherited your grandpa's position at the age of sixteen. Do you think I would have survived Los Angeles' cruel underworld if I was a soft, wimpy, naive princess locked in her own world not knowing what to do in extreme situations and crying in a corner?" she says with a sharp and clear voice, her expression changing into a severe one. "While I hated my old man for all the hardships he caused me during my childhood, even I have to admit that they were beyond just helpful; that's why I'm still alive and kicking."

"Well, you are in bad luck; I'm not looking on doing anything illegal to make money," Tyler responds with the same kind of expression as his mother.

"Haaa..." Lottie sighs in displeasure. "Thank God I have three more kids to take over the family business, since it seems you still won't accept your responsibilities."

"You do realise that you can't guilt-trip me into accepting, don't you? And my sisters would never take over the family business," Tyler says with a flat face, but Lottie dismisses the comment with a wave of her hand.

"We'll see about this." Clapping her hands once together, she turns at the rest of the occupants. "Let's leave family matters aside for now. I'm sure you all must be hungry after such a long flight."

"Uhm, excuse me, but... where are we going?" Miho asks slowly Lottie.

"Your name was Miho, correct?" Lottie asks in Japanese, which surprise the girls a little.

"You know Japanese?" she asks reluctantly, and Lottie nods.

"Well, one of my contacts, with whom I traded "things", was from Japan, and because his English were truly awful, I learned Japanese to be able to at least somewhat communicate with him. Then I took a liking to the language and studied it more, reaching a point where I could speak and write fluently. But answering your previous question, we are going to our mansion."

"Dude, you... you lived in a mansion?" Odysseus asks in disbelief, and Tyler looks at Odysseus with a confused expression.

"No... Last time I checked, my home was in downtown LA..." he answers and turns to look at Lottie with a confused expression. "Care to elaborate about this sudden house change?"

"Well, after the earthquakes, business in LA and the nearby towns really boomed, so there was a substantial rise in income. Since we were barely able to fit in the apartment we were staying-"

"Because of all the things you and dad were bringing from your work," Tyler interjects, but Lottie conveniently ignores the comment.

"- me and your father decided to buy the mansion where we are staying now. It has lots of space and rooms, and it is in a secluded area, just a few minutes out of LA, so no noisy people or anything like that," Lottie explains, but Tyler doesn't seem content with the answer.

"I feel like you are keeping something from me," Tyler says.

"Well, I might had to "convince" the owner of the mansion to offer me a better price, but that's all, no harm was done."

"So, what kind of business do you run? Is it like the mafia?" Odysseus asks curiously, in which Lottie immediately responds.

"Somewhat. Though what I have built, far outclasses them," she says with pride gleaming in her eyes. "We mainly utilize in importing and exporting contraband, providing protection to local businesses, providing assassination services, blackmailing, kidnappings..."

With every word Lottie speaks, the girls get more and more alarmed, while Tyler's expression gets a tad bit darker.

"We were also in the human trafficking market for some time, but since it wasn't as profitable as expected, we bailed out before we had incurred too much income loss."

An awkward silence descends inside the cabin, which is quickly broken by Tyler.

"And that's why me and my sisters hate you," Tyler says in disgust.

"Tyler! How can you say that to your mother!?" Saori whispers wide-eyed at Tyler, but Lottie manages to read her lips and answers.

"Don't worry, Saori, that's normal for us." Turning to Tyler her smile doesn't falter even once at her son's glaring. "At least Rosalie still loves her mom."

"Yeah, because she is like, what, seven years old now? You haven't talked to her about what you really do, have you?" Tyler counters, his every word coated with anger.

"He hadn't told us his relationship with his mother was so good," Odysseus whispers discreetly to Annabelle, who in response elbows her and motions her to stay silent.

"Well, you can berate me for my life choices as much as you want after dinner, but now it's neither the place nor the time to do so." Sighing, she hears two knockings coming from the window behind her, so she turns to the suited man on her right. "We have arrived."

Nodding once, the man gets up from his seat and opens the limo's door, then exits to keep it open so the rest of the occupants can disembark.

As everyone exits the limousine, a breathtaking view greets them. A Victorian-era, two storeys tall house, built with red bricks, while the courtyard at which they find themselves at the moment is paved with stone. A single, marble staircase that is wider at the bottom than at the top settles in front of them, leading to the house's entrance. Flanking the sides, and probably rear, of the house, is a huge garden, filled with different kinds of flowers and decorative bushes, as well as paved paths with antique lampposts.

"When did we even get here?" Odysseus gasps, looking all around her in awe, like the rest of the girls.

The only one who isn't as amazed as the rest is Annabelle, who has seen her fair share of Victorian-era mansions and manors, some of which far outclass this one.

"Welcome to our humble home," Lottie says as she takes the lead and starts walking up the staircase.

"If this is a "humble" home, I can't wait to see the "exaggerated" one," Odysseus snickers to herself and quickly follows over the woman, who by now has finally put on her hat, tilting it slightly on the left and backwards.

"I wonder if they have servants like in the other noble houses," Annabelle mumbles to herself and quickly follows after Odysseus.

"This... This house is so big! " Saori gasps in awe, looking at the stone building and its surroundings again and again, unable to tear her gaze off.

"Indeed, it is a sight to behold," Hana says, though she mainly looks on the vast garden that flanks the mansion, trying to see how many different kind of flowers and bushes she can spot.

"At least now I won't have to climb through boxes of weapons or other contraband to get to the kitchen for breakfast," Tyler sighs, then instantly develops a flat expression. "Oh, wait... I'm going to stay here for two days only... Well, let's see how my sisters are doing, at least. Come on, Saori," he says at hjs ginger-haired girlfriend, then starts walking up the stairs.

"Eh? Ah, coming!" she says quickly, snapping out of her thoughts.

"This is bigger than my family's house back in Japan," Miho muses at herself, then turns to face the remaining people. "Let's get going. We shouldn't keep the others waiting,"she says and starts walking up the stairs, followed by Yukari, Hana and Reiji.

Passing through the opened, wooden doors that were at least three meters tall, Miho finds herself inside a large room with a wide staircase on the opposite side from her, which leads to the next floor. The floor is made of marble, while most of it is carpeted, with the carpet being red in color. Looking around, she finds the room a bit "empty", only seeing a few furniture here and there, and a painting at the staircase's point where it branches left and right in two separate ones to connect with the above floor.

"I see we are all here, good. This lady over here is Sarah, and she is one of the maids working here."

Turning to Lottie, Miho sees her gesturing at a woman in her late thirties who stands next to her, wearing a maid's outfit.

"She will guide you to your rooms whenever you feel like checking them out," she says, but then a younger maid quickly approaches her and whispers something on her ear.

"Well, so much for having a day off," she says to herself, then turns to Miho and the rest. "It seems something has come up regarding work, so I'll leave you for the time being. The maids here will show you around if you want," she says and the two maids bow slightly. But as Lottie moves away to go to her office, she turns around and talks to the younger maid. "Sofia, escort Tyler to the library. I'm sure he'd love to see his sisters after such a long time."

"Yes, Miss Snow," Sofia, the younger maid, says, then turns to Tyler. "If you'll follow me."

Tyler nods slowly and follows the maid, albeit reluctantly.

"Ah, wait, Tyler! I'm coming with you!" Saori exclaims and quickly moves to his side.

Now the only people remaining in the room are the members of the Anglerfish team, minus Saori, and the members of the Antelope team, minus Tyler.

"Can you show me please where my room is?" Mako asks the older maid in a lethargic voice.

"Are you okay? You seem to be tired," the maid comments as she takes a better look at the girl which seems to be devoid of any kind of energy.

"Its nothing. I just have low blood pressure. If I sleep a little, I'll feel better."

Normally, at this point, Saori would interject and berate her, but since she has gone with Tyler, there's no one to stop her. Except for Miho, but she decides to let her sleep this time, since she barely got any sleep during the flight.

"If you say so," the older maid says and turns around to start walking up the stairs. "Then follow me, please. I'll show you to one of the guest rooms. Though," Looking at everyone, she makes a few calculations in her head, then speaks her thought, "with the current amount of people, some of you will have to sleep two people per room."

"Then, could you show us our room, too?" Miho asks and gestures at Yukari, and the maid nods.

"Of course," she says.

"Thanks," she bows slightly, then turns to Yukari. "Come on, Yukari. After we are shown to our room, we can explore the mansion."

"Okay, Miss Nishizumi," Yukari responds.

But as Miho turns to talk to Hana, Odysseus quickly steps besides her and whispers to her left ear.

"Leave Hana here; I've got a plan."

Hearing this, Miho turns to look at her with a questioning expression, but Odysseus mouths "Trust me" and motions slightly to Reiji and Hana with her head.

Albeit reluctantly, and after some thought, she finally relents. "Just don't cause her any trouble," she whispers back at the blonde, who develops a cheeky grin.

"Aww, when did I cause trouble for anyone," she winks and goes to Hana, while Miho, Yukari and Mako go away with the maid.

"Hey, Hana, can you do me a favor?" Odysseus asks Hana, who turns to look at her.

"What is it, Odysseus?" she asks with a smile and the blonde inches forward so no one else can hear her question but the black-haired girl.

"You see, Reiji has been feeling a little down lately, so if you could..."

As Odysseus is whispering to Hana, Reiji just stands watching them, trying to understand what kind of nefarious plan his commander has hatched yet again to cause trouble and mischief to everyone.

On the other hand, Annabelle stands a few steps away from Reiji, looking at Odysseus with her hands crossed over her chest and a menacing glare. "Always poking your nose where you shouldn't..." she mutters quietly, tapping her left foot somewhat impatiently.

"Thanks a lot!" Odysseus says to Hana and quickly goes to Annabelle.

"What where you-" Annabelle tries to ask, but Odysseus grabs her by her wrist and drags her away, almost causing her to trip over.

"No time to explain! We have a whole mansion to explore!" she exclaims as she drags her redhead friend over at the room on their left.

"Stop dragging me, I'll fall down!" Annabelle yells at Odysseus as she tries to keep her balance and regain her footing.

Having been left alone, Reiji turns to Hana and asks her a question. "What did Odysseus ask you? If you don't mind telling me, of course."

"Nothing much, just to get her a few white roses from the garden," Hana responds back with a smile, but Reiji forms a doubtful expression.

"Knowing her, I doubt she'd ask for flowers just because she wants some," he says and Hana looks at him in surprise.

"Why do you say that?" she inquires, as both she and Reiji make their way towards the mansion's entrance.

"Many reasons; one of them being she is a truly cunning person. Unpredictable, scheming, always hatching a plot to cause trouble or mischief for her own amusement. Although, most of the times her pranks are harmless."

"You... don't have the best of opinions about Odysseus, do you?" Hana asks slowly, as both she and Reiji descend the marble staircase and go left, towards the garden.

"Don't misunderstand me, it's not like that. But after being almost two years with her, I've come to know that most of the times, her every move and action is meant to be part of a bigger plan she has. Hence why I'm sceptical about her request for flowers."

"So you think she is planning something?" Hana asks and Reiji nods in agreement.

"Yes. Most likely, something that involves us, too. But being she is really difficult to read, I have no idea what she's planning. The only person that can understand her process of thought and what she's thinking is Annabelle. Maybe it's because they have been together since Odysseus first came to Japan, or because they trust each other a lot, but she can see through every act or mask Odysseus might put forth to fool us."

"She must care a lot for her," Hana comments as they reach the start of the garden at the side of the mansion.

"This is an understatement. I'm sure you have noticed, but they consider each other family. Annabelle makes sure Odysseus won't do anything stupid, although she sometimes is a bit harsh to her, and Odysseus makes sure Annabelle is safe."

Walking on the brick pathway of the garden, which is flanked on both sides by flowers, he stoops down and picks up a white tulip. "But I think I've talked enough about them. How about we talk about ourselves a little, get to know each other better?" he asks, presenting the flower at Hana.

"I don't mind," Hana responds, taking the white tulip and inspecting it slowly. "Such a healthy flower; the gardener here must care about them a lot."

"Indeed," Reiji says as he looks for a moment at the huge field of flowers that the garden is, before walking along with Hana further on it, looking for the white roses Odysseus has asked for. "Since I asked first, let me answer, too. I come from a normal family, having lived all of my life in Hitachinaka city, which is in the Ibaraki prefecture. I was studying to become a researcher, actually, wanting to earn a scholarship in the Tokyo Institute of Technology."

"Isn't it considered one of the most prestigious universities in Japan?" Hana asks and Reiji smirks a little.

"Always liked to dream big. Also, the reason I'm my team's gunner is because I always had a knack for ballistics. Though I'm sure my skill can in no way compare to yours."

"Thank you for your words, Reiji, but I'm not that good," Hana says with a smile, stopping for a moment to pick up a purple carnation.

"I beg to differ," Reiji steps next to Hana and picks a purple carnation too. "Your shot that knocked out the flag tank against Saunders was truly a spectacle to watch."

"Are you a fan of Senshadou?"

"No, not really. I find it very time consuming and drawn out for my liking. But my parents were, so I happened to see that exact shot on TV. I was really impressed by it."

"Ah, I see. Where are your parents, now? Are they back in Blackout, or are they living somewhere else?" Hana asks Reiji, who for a second remains silent, then turns to look at her.

"They are dead."

The calmness with which Reiji says that causes Hana to remain silent, looking at him with slightly widen eyes.

"Oh... I'm sorry," she says, but Reiji merely takes a few steps away, picks up a daisy, and returns to give it to her.

"Don't worry about it," he says and hands her the flower, with Hana now holding a white tulip, a purple carnation and a white daisy. "When the initial earthquakes hit, our house collapsed and my parents died from the rubble; I barely managed to escape unscathed." Pausing for a moment, he hands Hana the purple carnation he had been holding. "That's my life's story, really. It's a rather plain one, in my opinion. But, what about you? What's your story?"

"I come from a wealthy family which has been practicing flower arrangement for generations," Hana says, as she spots some lilacs nearby, so she goes and picks a few.

"I take it that's why you like flowers so much?" he asks, spotting the bouquet of flowers Hana is holding with her right hand.

"Yes. Though, they always fascinated me, since I was a little girl. They always looked so pretty, with their colorful appearances, their different shapes and sizes. How every Spring they would return to blanket the fields and fill the void Winter would leave behind. From the smallest daisy, to the biggest sunflower, flowers have something beautiful and unique; it's almost as if they talk to us." Inspecting the red rose she has just picked up, Hana carefully places it between the other flowers.

As both Reiji and Hana keep walking further in the garden, they find themselves at a point where the brick pathway forms a circle, with more brick pathways connecting on that circle. In its center, a big brush having a multitude of white roses stands, while in the outer perimeter of the circle are black tulips, creating an eerie, yet beautiful contrast. Walking on the circle, Reiji picks up a black tulip, spending long moments observing it, remaining silent as a gentle breeze picks up, carrying black and white petals in the air with it.

"What did Odysseus really ask? Except for the white roses," Reiji looks at Hana and asks.

Hana, turning to face Reiji as she had been looking at the white roses, remains silent for a moment.

"She said you were feeling a little down lately, and asked me if I could cheer you up, somehow." Hana develops an apologetic expression and bows her head slightly. "I apologize for not telling you earlier, but she also asked me to keep it a secret from you."

"You don't have to apologize; you did nothing wrong." Turning around, Reiji makes his way at the circle's center, picking slowly some white roses as silence descents once more, with Hana looking at Reiji with a worried expression.

"Do you remember how I told you there were many reasons why I doubted Odysseus simply wanted some white roses?" he asks Hana who nods in agreement, though Reiji doesn't see this. "You see, Odysseus despises roses, and especially white ones," he says and turns to Hana, holding a bunch of white roses in his left hand.

"Despises them? But why?" Hana asks.

"Because she knew someone who really loved them." Picking a few black tulips, Reiji starts putting them between the white roses, trying to make a checkered pattern with the flowers.

"I trust you enough to tell you why I'm feeling down today, but please keep it between us."

"I will," Hana nods with a serious expression.

Letting a light sigh escape his nose, Reiji talks. "Today... is the day my sister died."

Hana widens her eyes in shock, but remains silent as Reiji keeps talking, still trying to make a checkered pattern with the flowers.

"On the one hand, I always berate myself for not being able to save her, but on the other hand, I wouldn't have been here if she was still alive."

"So... the reason you never talked about her is..." Hana says slowly, but Reiji completes her sentence for her.

"...because it is really painful to even mention her."

"I see... I'm really sorry for bringing it up," Hana bows her head in shame, but Reiji gives it no heed, instead picking a single white rose from the flowers he holds and inspecting it slowly.

"You have nothing to apologize for; I was the one that brought the subject up."

Hana nods silently, but then, out of morbid curiosity, a question pops in her mind. While she knows she shouldn't ask something like that, and feels ashamed of even thinking something like that, her curiosity finally wins and so makes her inquiry.

"I'm sorry for asking, but... your sister... Did she... when the house collapsed?"

Reiji looks at her with a bitter smile. "I know it'll sound dark, but I wish it had been that way..."

"Why would you say something like that, Reiji?" Hana asks in shock.

In return Reiji takes the single, white rose he had been inspecting and carefully places it at the center of Hana's bouquet.

"It's simple really." Although his face doesn't change expression, it's like a dark shadow has been cast over it.

"It's because Odysseus killed her."

* * *

"Here is the library," Sofia says as she stops in front of a simple-looking, wooden door painted creamy white to match the color of the walls of the hallway they are currently in.

"I expected something more grand for an entrance in a big library," Tyler says and Sofia giggles a little.

"That's what Miss Snow said when she first came here. If you'll excuse me, I'll return to my duties now," she says and bows her head a little, before going away.

"Well, I hope it's not like these huge libraries in movies where you can get lost just by taking a wrong turn," Tyler muses as he grabs the door's knob and turns it. "Coming?" he asks Saori, who seems to be hesitating for some reason.

"W-Well, I feel like I'd be intruding in your reunion with your sisters," she answers shyly, and Tyler makes an expression like he has been offended.

"You mean you don't want to meet my sisters? Do you think so badly of them even though you haven't met them yet?" he says in an exaggerated manner, causing Saori to panic.

"Wh-What!? N-N-No, no, no, of course not!" she says in a panicked voice, flailing her hands left and right, though she does pout when she sees Tyler laughing.

"I'm joking, I'm joking," he waves his hand in a dismissive manner to indicate he didn't mean what he had said, but Saori takes a step towards him and starts pinching his cheeks and pulling them harshly.

"That wasn't nice!" she almost shouts at him, with Tyler now cringing from the pain.

"And neither you pinching and pulling my cheeks like I'm made of rubber," he says after grabbing Saori's hands and moving them away from his now red cheeks. "Now I know how Mako feels."

"You shouldn't tease me like this!" Saori says and turns away from Tyler, crossing her hands and pouting cutely.

Sighing through his nose, a gentle smile forms on his lips. _Like father said, 'If a girl gets mad, even if it isn't your fault, it's your fault.'_

Rolling his eyes on the thought, he goes behind Saori and hugs her.

"Huh!? H-Hey, Tyl-!" Saori exclaims in surprise, but grows silent when he kisses the side of her neck, her face reddening from embarrassment.

"I'm sorry, okay? I won't tease you that much again," he says gently, slightly swaying her left and right.

"You are cheating..." Saori murmurs, and as Tyler lets her, she turns around and looks up at him.

"Sorry. I may have overreacted a little," she says and stands on the tips of her toes, kissing Tyler on his lips. Parting their lips, Tyler smirks a little.

"You are becoming bolder," he says, causing Saori's slight blush to expand to her whole face from her embarrassment.

"You said you wouldn't tease me anymore!" she exclaims embarrassed, pushing Tyler towards the library's door amidst his laughter.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but you are so cute when you are embarrassed," Tyler says and Saori grows quiet once more, grumbling to herself.

Reaching the door, Tyler opens it and enters the library along with Saori. Looking around, they find bookshelves that reach the ceiling filled to the brim with books.

"This looks like a maze," Saori comments, then walks closer to one of the bookshelves and starts scanning the titles of the books.

"Indeed. We better stick close to each other, or we'll probably get lost," Tyler says at Saori, then his expression turns to a flat one. "Getting lost in my own house, huh? That'll be a first. What are you looking at?"

"The titles of the books," Saori answers and points at the books.

"Huh... Gun basics 101," he mutters the title of one of the books and picks it up, opening it and reading a random page. "When firing a weapon, accuracy tends to be higher when crouching or lying prone, as opposed to standing, and it also minimizes one's silhouette, providing the enemy with less chances of landing a hit." Closing the book and putting it back in its place, he starts reading more of the titles to get an idea to whom these belong to. "Field maintenance of Sub-Machine Guns. Rocket launchers that changed warfare. Revolver tricks to impress your friends... Yep, these definitely belong to my dad."

"To your dad?" Saori asks curiously, and Tyler nods.

"Yep. My father is a weapons dealer."

"Are you trying to tease me again?"

"Nope. I'm honest with you right now." Turning to look at the huge bookshelve, he spots another book and takes it. "Both my parents are doing illegal jobs. That's one reason they are together, after all."

"Oh."

"Under the years, through their jobs, they managed to gather a substantial amount of things, and some of them were books. Glad to see that they no longer pile up in the middle of the hallway because there is no space somewhere to put them," he says and puts the book back, then turns to Saori. "Come on, let's go find my sisters; I'm kinda glad I'll get to see them after all this time."

"Ok," Saori responds, but as they start navigating through the maze of bookshelves, she spots a book with an interesting title and gets distracted, approaching the bookshelve and pulling the book out of its place.

Inspecting its rugged, leather cover, then its title, Saori opens it at a random page and starts reading. Although the text is in English, Saori knows well enough the language to speak, write and read it. "...while its existence remains largely a secret, with its production method long forgotten and lost, love dust was widely used during the Middle Ages, especially by female assassins and infiltrators. When used in high quantities, it would send the target into a euphoric shock, causing dizyness, disorientation, and in some cases even fainting. An enchanted version of it, known as Venus dust, was said to be able to mesmerize anyone, even the gods."

Reading page after page, Saori gets more and more intrigued by what is written in the book, till she reaches a page where there is no text, but a very intricately-drawn circle, with various shapes, symbols, and Latin characters drawn in it. "This resembles the magical circles I've seen in manga and games. And the contents of this book are like we are in a fantasy world. Speaking about alchemy, spells, and other such things..." Skimming her fingers over the page, she finds out that the circle is actually engraved on the page, and directly beneath it there is a single name.

"Pandora..." Saori whispers the name, and the circle in the page starts glowing with a soft pink color.

"Eeek!" she yelps in surprise and lets the book to fall down on the carpeted floor, taking a few steps back. From the book, a single orb colored soft pink rises, hovering at the level of Saori's chest.

"D-Don't tell me... this is Ether too..." she whispers in fear. "T-Tyler..." she stutters, but when she gets no response and looks around, Tyler is nowhere to be found.

"Tyler!?" she shouts, but no response comes. Looking forward, the orb starts swirling, and under a moment changes form to a harpoon. Before she can react, the harpoon launches itself and pierces through her heart, passing cleanly through her.

"Aaahhh!" Shouting in reflex and squeezing her eyes shut, she remains like that for a few seconds, but when she finally notices that there is no pain, she reluctantly opens them, only to find herself standing in front of the bookshelve she previously was, still holding the book in her hands.

"Huh?" she utters, blinking a few times. "What just happened?" Looking down on the book, like she remembered, the page has an intricate circle drawn on it, but there is no name underneath it.

Shaking her head a few times as if to get rid of herself of what just happened, she closes the book and puts it back on its place, turning to talk to Tyler.

"Hey, Tyler, did you..." Looking around, she finds Tyler nowhere to be seen. "Tyler?" she says louder, but gets no respond back. "Where did he go?"

Walking towards the direction she and Tyler were walking, she instantly regrets her decision as she gets lost when she takes a wrong turn between the rows and rows of bookshelves.

"Tyler! Where are you?"

Taking a left on a T-shaped intersection, she finds herself on a dead end.

"Geez! Who thought that building the library's layout like this was a good idea?" Turning around and walking back at the intersection, as she is about to turn right, something rounds the corner quickly and collides with her.

"Ouch!"

Looking in front of her, she finds a little girl with long, blonde hair tied in pigtails and blue eyes sitting on the ground, rubbing her forehead with her hand. "My head hurts."

"Are you alright, little girl?" Saori asks and the girl looks at her, saying nothing for a few seconds. Standing up, the girl dusts her short-sleeved, striped black and yellow dress.

"Hi! My name is Rosalie!" she waves cutely at Saori.

"Hi, Rosalie. My name is Saori," she responds with a smile, and Rosalie starts giggling.

"You sound funny!" the little girl says cheerfully, finding Saori's accented English funny.

"That's because I'm from a country named Japan," Saori answers and the girl gasps.

"Really!? My big brother is there! Mommy said he had gone there for a job, but he would return home quickly."

 _She must mean Tyler,_ Saori muses to herself. "You see, I'm a very close friend of Tyler."

"You know my big brother? Is he here with you!?" the little girl shouts at Saori, looking at her with eyes full of excitement.

"Mmhm," Saori nods and Rosalie turns around and starts running, completely surprising Saori, who quickly follows her.

"Mommy, mommy, Tyler is back!" she shouts as she keeps running, with Saori trying to keep up with her as the girl turns left and right, expertly navigating through the rows and rows of bookshelves.

"Ah, wait! Don't run or you might fall down and get hurt!" Saori shouts at Rosalie, but the girl keeps running. Rounding a corner, Saori hears a muffled, thumping sound, followed by Rosalie saying "Ouch!".

Rounding the same corner, Saori finds Rosalie sitting on the ground, rubbing her forehead again, but this time, a tall woman with short, black hair and black eyes stands in front of the little girl, wearing a pair of glasses, a white dress shirt with the last two, upper buttons opened, and a long, black skirt.

Seeing Saori, the young woman stoops down and picks up Rosalie in a hug, before turning her body slightly, like she is trying to keep the little girl away from the ginger-haired girl.

"Are you okay, Rosalie?" she asks and the girl nods, before pointing at Saori with a huge smile.

"Tyler is back! She is a friend of big brother and said she came here with him!"

"Is that so?" the woman asks and looks at Saori, scanning her from tip to toe for a few moments.

"H-Hi! My name Takebe Saori. I-I was with Tyler a few minutes ago, but got separated from him and then I lost my way," Saori stutters and bows hastily, feeling the woman's strict glare on her. "I-It is nice to meet you."

"My name is Natalie Davis, Tyler's older sister," the woman introduces herself. "Hmm, you must be a "very" close friend to Tyler," she takes a guess, and when Saori's cheeks start blushing and her eyes start looking at the floor, she hums in mild interest.

"Nata, Nata, why is Saori blushing?" Rosalie asks, tugging at Natalie's folded collar. "Is she not feeling well?"

"Maybe," Natalie responds, but quickly changes the subject. "Shall we go and find Tyler?"

"Yay, I'll see Tyler again!" Rosalie cheerfully says, lifting her hands in the air.

"Do you have any idea towards which direction Tyler went?" Natalie asks Saori, which shakes her head in response.

"No. I was reading a book when we got separated, so I have no idea where he might have gone."

"Ah, well, no need to worry. Kaylie was also searching for Rosalie, so she'll most likely find him," Natalie says, which earns a curious gaze from Saori.

"Kaylie?" she asks, and Natalie stops to look at her.

"Tyler's twin sister. Has he never spoken about us?" she asks, and Saori shakes her head.

"No. He always avoided the subject," she answers, at which Natalie nods understanding.

"Ah, I see. It's okay, then." Walking for a minute or two, Saori finds herself in an area, probably in the center of the library, where a huge, wooden desk is placed, with several chairs around it and a few lamps on top of it. At one of its sides, an open book sits on top of it, with the chair there bring further away from the table than the others.

Putting Rosalie down, Natalie makes her way to the open book and picks it up, marking the page at which is open, then closing it and placing it at the table.

"Can I see Tyler, now?" Rosalie asks impatiently, fidgeting in place as she waits for Natalie's response.

"I'm sure Kaylie will bring him here, so could you please wait a few minutes?" asks Natalie.

"Okay," Rosalie nods. Running towards a nearby bookshelve, she tries to reach a certain book at a shelve that is too high for her. Seeing this, Saori goes to the girl to help her.

"Let me help you," she says and lifts Rosalie up.

"Thank you," Rosalie says as she grabs the book. After putting her down, Rosalie runs to the wooden desk, putting the book on it, then climbing one of the chairs to start reading it.

"You are really good with kids," Natalie comments.

"Ah, well, I was working at a-"

"You bitch, is this how you greet me after returning here after two years!?"

"You are one to talk, you dick! Just upped and left without saying anything!"

"Seems like Kaylie found him," Natalie sighs, walking behind Rosalie and cupping her ears.

"Is something wrong?" Rosalie asks confused, but Natalie merely smiles at her, as the twins keep bickering somewhere in the distance.

"Oh, how grateful I am for your kind words, Kaylie. What would I do without you!?"

"Probably die in a ditch somewhere out there, you damn buffoon, so let me show you how grateful I am!"

From a hallway that passes within the bookshelves, a random book flies inside the area they are, followed by a second book and a thumping noise, and finally Tyler jumping backwards, crossing his arms in front of him and a book hitting him.

"Tyler!" Saori shouts, and Tyler momentarily gets distracted, turning his head to look at her.

"Saori?" he says, before a book strikes him at the side of his face, causing him to stagger backwards and look forward.

"It seems you still lower your guard down when you are surprised." From the hallway, a girl around 165cm tall appears, sporting wavy, blonde hair and blue eyes just like Tyler's. She is wearing a striped shirt colored red and white, a black, short skirt, white stockings, and black boots.

"And you still keep gloating like a cliche villain, Kaylie," Tyler says and kneels, grabbing one of the books that are lying near him and throwing it at his sister, hitting her in her belly.

"Fuck!" she grunts as she hugs her own belly, falling to her knees and muttering curses quietly.

Tyler on the other hand falls to his butt, sitting on the ground and grasping the side of his head. Saori runs to his side, kneeling down to look at his head and make sure he isn't hurt really bad.

"Tyler, what where you thinking? You could have gotten hurt really badly!" Saori berates her boyfriend, then turns at his sister. "And you, why were you throwing books at him!?"

"Because this idiot had the nerve to show up after disappearing for two years!" Kaylie shouts at Saori, then turns to Tyler. "Do you know how sad Rosalie was? Not even saying a word to us..."

"Hey, it's not like I had a choice! I-!"

"Will both of you stop arguing, or should I call Mother here to calm you down?" Natalie raises her voice over both of the twins, which are now sporting pale faces and are silent as the night.

"Tyler, are you okay?" Saori asks worried as she sees his pale complexion.

"I'm better then ever, right Kaylie?" Tyler asks with cold sweat visible on his forehead, and Kaylie immediately nods several times.

"Yep, everything's fine and dandy!" she responds with a hollow smile frozen on her face.

Uncupping Rosalie's ears, who had been blissfully reading her book, Natalie leans next to her and speaks to her with a sweet voice.

"Rosalie, look who is here."

Turning around on her seat, the little girl gasps as she spots Tyler. Immediately jumping down from the chair, she runs and jumps at him, hugging his neck from behind.

"Yay, you are back!" Rosalie shouts in joy, with Tyler turning his head in surprise to look at her.

"Rosalie!" he says in joy, too, turning his entire body to give her a tight hug.

"I missed you so much! Mommy had said you were going to come home soon!"

"I missed you a lot, too, Rosalie." Parting from their hug, Tyler ruffles her hair a bit. "It seems you have grown taller."

"Of course! I'm a big girl now!" Rosalie says with a prideful expression, and Tyler smiles at her.

"I'm sure you are." Standing up, he turns to his older sister. "So, what have I lost these past two years?"

"Not much, really. Business has been going very "smoothly", both for Mom and Dad, though the US did get split up in four factions," answers Kaylie before Natalie can speak, so Tyler turns to look at her. "But what about you? What had you been doing these past two years? I'm sure you'll have an interesting story to tell us."

"Yes," Tyler nods, but then mouths, "Not in front of Rosalie". Kaylie nods understanding and goes and kneels in front of Rosalie.

"Rosalie, will you do me a favor and go with Saori tell Daddy that Tyler is here?" she asks, and Rosalie nods several time, then runs to Saori.

"Ahh... Uhm... Why me?" Saori asks awkwardly looking at the girls, while Rosalie grabs her hand.

"You are a nice person," Rosalie says, pulling her hand as hard as she can. "Come, we need to tell Daddy that Tyler is back!"

"Ah, wait a second! Don't pull that hard, you'll make me trip!" Saori says at Rosalie, as both disappear from everyone's vision.

"Well, I guess you can now start explaining where you had been these past two years," Natalie says and Tyler sighs in response, beginning his recount of everything that had happened till this point for the second time this day.

* * *

"Wow..."

Entering the guest room, both Miho and Yukari gasp at what they are seeing. The room is fairly large, twice as big as Yukari's. The walls are covered with tapestry, frames with paintings hanging on them, while most of the floor is carpeted. Two single beds are placed at the opposite side of where the door to enter is, with a single, wooden wardrobe that could hold several people's clothes being between them. A single, large window is at the wall behind the beds, giving a direct line of sight at the magnificent garden that resides behind the mansion.

While both girls ogle at the luxury the guest room has, Mako makes a beeline straight for one of the beds, removing her boots and lying on the bed in mere moments.

"Your friend seems to be... quite exhausted," the old maid notes with a raised eyebrow, sitting just outside the room.

"Yeah, she gets tired pretty easily," Miho says with an awkward smile, rubbing the back of her neck uneasily.

"Wake me up when the sun comes up," Mako says in a monotone voice, and like flipping a switch, she instantly falls asleep.

"At any rate, this is the guest room you'll be staying. The three rooms next to this," the old maid gestures to her right, "are guest rooms too, as well the rooms opposite from the rooms at this side of the hallway. There should be enough to cover everyone; I'll leave the room assignment to you."

"Thank you very much," Miho bows at the maid, who bows back at her, then goes away.

"Well, now we know where the rooms are," Miho says, not sure what to do next.

"Miss Nishizumi, you should come and see this," Yukari says in amazement as she looks out the window. Walking next to her, Miho gasps too, as the sight of the most colorful flower garden she has ever seen fills her vision.

"This is so pretty," she almost whispers, seeing all the different colors of the flowers. "Hana would love this."

"I think I can see her," Yukari says to Miho and points at the center of the garden.

Looking at where the brick pathways converge and form a circle, Miho indeed spots Hana, along with Reiji. Looking a bit more at them, she can see them talking, with Reiji putting a single flower at the bouquet Hana is holding.

"Well, we still have a few hours till dinner, so let's take it easy for now," Miho suggests, but then sees Yukari widening her eyes slightly. "Is something wrong?"

"Our stuff!" Yukari says loudly, grabbing her hair and slightly pulling them. "We left them with that guy from Blackout!" Like a deflated balloon, Yukari let's her hands fall to her sides, adopting a depressed expression. "Ugh... I had my MRE kits and equipment there..."

"Huh?" Miho looks at her friend with a raised eyebrow, but then it hits her. "Oh... W-Well, we could ask Miss Snow if she could get us at Blackout's base to get our stuff," Miho says and Yukari instantly brightens up, cupping both of Miho's hands with her own and raising them at her chest's level.

"You think so?" she asks with sparkling eyes, and Miho can't do anything but smile.

"Yes," she nods.

"Then let's go ask her now!" Yukari declares, running to the door and opening it. "Uhm..." she utters as she finds a tall, muscular man with wide shoulders waiting in front of the door, his hand raised like he was about to knock. He wears a black T-shirt, blue jeans and boots, while a long scar runs diagonally over his face downwards from left to right. "Miss Nishizumi, we have a visitor..."

Upon hearing the name, the man's black eyes turn to Miho, then to the sleeping Mako.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought this was the room Tyler was staying," the man says.

"Tyler? Do you want him for something?" Miho asks in English with the best of her ability, and the man nods.

"I'd like to talk to him. I assume you know where he is?" the man asks, rubbing his head with his left hand and slightly messing his black hair.

"He has gone to the library to meet his sisters."

"Ah, I see. Haah... not even sparing some time for his father, huh?" he shakes his head, but then notices the girls looking at him with surprised expressions. "Do I have something on my face?"

"You are Tyler's father?" Miho asks slowly, looking at his black hair and eyes.

"Let me introduce myself," the man says and coughs once. "I'm Blake Davis. Profesional weapons dealer, husband of Lottie Snow, and Tyler's father. It is nice meeting you, Miss..."

"Nishizumi Miho," Miho bows respectfully. "This is my friend and colleague, Akiyama Yukari," she gestures to Yukari, who upon seeing this and having seen Miho bowing, she bows too, "and the girl sleeping on the bed is another friend and colleague of us, Reizei Mako."

"You are all Blackout mercenaries, huh?" Blake says, noticing the uniforms the girls are wearing, as well as the insignias on them. "Black Wolves... nice name," he nods a few times, looking at the squad's custom emblem. "Pretty cool emblem, too."

"Uhm... Thank you?" Miho says uncertainly, and the man chuckles in response.

"Don't worry, I won't ask anything more," he says and turns around to go away.

"Uhm, excuse me... but can you tell us where Miss Snow's office is?" Miho asks before Blake can leave.

"Something you want to ask her?" Blake asks and Miho nods. "If you go down the main staircase, turn left and pass through the lounge room, and at the end of the living room you should find a wooden door with a carved frame. In that room is her office. Just knock and enter."

"Daddy! Daddy!"

Looking at his right, he sees further down the hallway Rosalie running towards him, dragging with her an older girl with ginger-colored hair.

"Wait, Rosalie, I'll fall down!" the older girl says loudly to the little girl, and both Miho and Yukari look out of the entrance when they hear the girl's voice.

"Saori?" Miho says and the girl looks up for a moment.

"Ah, Miporin!" Saori says, then loses her balance and crashes down to the ground. "Ouch!"

Because of this, and because Rosalie was holding Saori's hand, the little girl finds herself being dragged down on the carpeted floor, hitting the back of her head with an audible "Thump".

Sitting up on the ground, Rosalie looks at her father and starts sniffling, her eyes tearing up.

"Rosalie..." Blake says slowly and the little girl immediately starts crying.

"Waaaaaah!"

"Rosalie! Are you okay? Does it hurt anywhere?" Saori says upon hearing Rosalie crying, completely forgetting about the pain she is feeling on her right forearm from her clumsy landing, kneeling on the ground and scooting closer to Rosalie.

Turning to look at her, the still-crying Rosalie turns around and stretches her hands towards Saori. Picking her up and placing her head over her left shoulder, Saori tries to calm down the little girl.

"Shhh, calm down Rosalie, everything's fine," Saori says in a soothing voice, and Rosalie stops crying, albeit she keeps sniffling, trying her best to wipe the tears from her eyes with her small hand. After she has calmed enough, Saori gives Rosalie to Blake.

"Feeling better?" Blake asks, and Rosalie nods, though she still sniffles occasionally. "So, what did you want me?"

"Tyler is back. He is at the library," Rosalie says quietly, then hugs Blake's neck.

"You came to tell me?" he asks and Rosalie nods. "Thanks," he says and pats her head. "Dinner should be ready in an hour or two, so if you want to explore the mansion, just ask one of the maids to guide you around."

Turning around, the man goes away with Rosalie, leaving Saori, Miho and Yukari alone.

"This was Tyler's father, right?" Saori asks out of the blue, with both Miho and Yukari nodding. "Wow, they share almost no resemblance."

"Even Rosalie looked more like Miss Snow," Yukari comments.

"Now that I think about it, only Natalie somewhat resembles him."

"Natalie?" Miho asks, guessing it's probably one of Tyler's sisters.

"Oh! She is Tyler's older sister," she responds. "Anyway, what were you doing? I was with Tyler in the library, where he met his sisters."

"A maid showed us where our rooms are, and we were going to go to Miss Snow's office."

"What for?" Saori asks with interest.

"To ask her if she could take us to Blackout's base to get our duffel bags."

"Ah, you are right! Our spare clothing is in them!" Saori says in surprise. Looking down on her own uniform, she makes a slightly cringing face. "With all that happened today, I completely forgot I wanted to change my uniform. Ugh, I feel so dirty and sweaty..."

"At least the house isn't hot," Yukari notes.

"Probably because it's made of bricks and stone. They tend to be very good insulators," Miho says.

"By the way, where is Mako and Hana?"

"Hana is with Reiji, exploring the garden. Mako is inside the room, sleeping," Miho says and Saori frowns a little.

"We can't have her sleep now! Dinner is in two hours max, she might lose her appetite," she responds and goes inside the room to wake her up.

"Mako, wake up! Dinner is in two hours!"

"Then wake me up when it's ready."

"You might lose your appetite if I do that, so you need to get up now. Ngghh!"

"I'll never leave this bed. You might try to pull me out of it as much as you want, but I'll never concede."

"Come...on, Mako! What...would your grandma tell...you if she saw you like this!"

"Sleep more?"

"You know she wouldn't tell you something like that!"

Seeing them like this, Miho can't do anything but giggle, the whole scene reminding her of her time at the Ooarai carrier.

"Is everything alright, Miss Nishizumi?" Yukari asks, seeing Miho giggling.

"Yes, Yukari," Miho answers, turning to look at her with a serene smile. "They just remind me of our time back in the carrier..."

Looking at her, Yukari can clearly see her smile faltering, turning into a melancholic and bitter one.

"Don't worry, Miss Nishizumi! I'm sure we will return to peaceful times like these, eventually! We just have to be patient!" she says confidently in an effort to cheer Miho up.

"You are right. We just have to be patient. Thank you, Yukari."

But while her smile has turned again into a cheerful one, inside her she just feels sadness. Sadness at the fact that however much they try to go to their old lives, to return to those peaceful and cheerful moments, to relive them once more, it wouldn't be the same.

They had lost far too much, sacrificed far too many things to simply forget everything they had done. They had too much guilt to allow themselves to do that.

* * *

 **A few hours later**

"...and as the wolf stooped down at the river's edge to drink some water, he slipped in it. Because he had eaten so much, despite his best efforts, he couldn't swim to the surface of the river, and thus, drowned." Looking over the top of the book, Tyler sees Rosalie has finally fallen asleep.

"Finally," he sighs as he closes the book and stands up from the chair he had been sitting for the past hour. Stretching his hands for a moment, he turns to the figure that sits in a chair next to him.

"Hey, Saori, wake up. Rosalie finally fell asleep," he whispers as he gently shakes Saori.

"H-Huh? O-Oh, she finally fell asleep," Saori says groggily, yawning slightly and rubbing her sleepy eyes.

"Yes. Though it seems you fell asleep too," Tyler answers with a smile.

"It's not my fault, alright? The exhaustion from all the day was starting to show up, and your voice sounded so soothing," Saori says as her eyes start closing again, and her head nods towards the right. In response, she jolts her head up on instinct.

 _Knock-Knock_

Placing the book on his seat, Tyler goes towards the door and opens it slightly, light pouring from the hallway at the dimly lit room.

"Oh, Kaylie," he says as he finds his twin sister standing in front of the room's door.

"Hey Tyler," she says quietly. "Is Rosalie sleeping?"

"You are here to take her to her room?" he asks and Kaylie nods, so Tyler opens the door to let her come in, then closes it.

"Sorry about what happened in the afternoon. I might have overreacted a bit," she apologizes with an awkward smile.

"You don't need to apologize. You already did once," Tyler smiles, but then his expression turns flat as Kaylie adds one more thing.

"Though it still is your fault."

"There is my sister I know. Polar opposites till the end, huh?"

"Totally!" she grins. Reaching the bed where Rosalie is sleeping, she gently picks her up.

"Oh, Saori is here," she says in surprise as she only now spots Saori, sleeping in the chair she is sitting onto. A cat-like expression forms on her face as she looks at Tyler.

"Oh my, I never had you for such a person, Tyler. Are you planning on taking this girl's first time here?" she whispers with a smirk.

"No," Tyler deadpans and Kaylie's expression vanishes. "I'm used to this kind of teasing, because my commander does things like this all the time.

"Ah, you mean that psycho blondie?"

"Psycho blondie?" Tyler mutters with a raised eyebrow. "First time I hear someone call her something like that."

"Well, I want to study to become a psychologist. Spotting crazy people is the least I can do."

"Yeah, but for all her craziness, she does seem to care about us. So I'd say sees more like a sociopath, than a psychopath."

"Even so, don't you think it is dangerous being near her?" Kaylie asks worried and Tyler snorts.

"In this kind of world? I'd say she's our best ticket on staying alive."

"If you say so." Moving to the door, Kaylie opens it and steps out. "Just make sure you don't die out there. Rosalie would be really sad, and I'd be really pissed off."

"Dully noted," Tyler responds and Kaylie goes away with Rosalie.

Closing the door, Tyler sighs and goes back to wake up Saori.

"Hey, Saori, wake up," he whispers, gently shaking her again, but Saori makes no move to indicate she has woken up. Picking her up in his arms carefully, he slowly places her on the bed Rosalie was sleeping. Untying the shoelaces of her boots, he slowly removes them and puts them besides the bed.

"Probably should get her spare clothes for her to change," he mutters to himself, but as he turns around, he knees the chair he was sitting in, causing the book that was on top of it to fall down.

 _Clang_

 _Thump_

"Aw, shit," he curses quietly and turns to look to Saori, who seems to have woken up from the sudden sound.

"Uhm... Tyler? Did I fall asleep again?" she asks slowly as she sits up on the bed, blinking a few times.

"Don't worry about it. I'll go get your spare clothes for you," Tyler answers as he picks up the fallen book and puts it on the chair it was previously, but then feels a hand grabbing his left wrist.

"Something wrong?" he asks as he turns around, and sees Saori looking at him with eyes full of worry.

"It's... Well, I..." she tries to speak up, but her voice is full of hesitation, so Tyler talks for her.

"Are you worried about the mission?" he asks. Sitting on the edge of the bed, Saori gets up and sits next to him.

"Yes. I... I'm really worried about it," she says, looking on the floor. Taking hold of Tyler's hand, she unconsciously starts squeezing it. "It also didn't help I had a horrible nightmare the other night."

"Don't worry that much," Tyler says and uses his left arm to pull Saori closer to him. "Both Miho and Odysseus are exceptional commandets; I'm certain they'll make sure we come back safe and sound."

"I-I know... It's just that, what if something happens to you?" Looking up at him, even in the dimly lit room, Tyler can clearly see her glistening eyes. "I-I could never forgive myself i-if... i-if you were w-wounded, o-or... Sniff..." Tears start streaming down her face, so she looks away from Tyler, trying her best to wipe them away with her uniform's sleeve. "I just don't want you to get hurt."

"You don't have to worry, Saori. I promise you I won't get hurt." Hugging her, Saori remains silent, looking down on the floor, her hair blocking Tyler from being able to look at her eyes.

"Feeling better?" he asks as he stops hugging Saori, but Tyler gets no answer. "Saori? Did I-"

Before he can react, Saori turns around, pushes him down on the bed and mounts him, supporting herself by pressing her hands against Tyler's chest.

"W-Whoah! Saori, what are you doing!?" he asks in surprise. Saori remains silent, looking down at him with a flustered face and breathing heavily. She feels like her heart is about to explode from her embarrassment, but she also feels she has to do this. Taking Tyler's right hand, she places it on her left breast. Tyler reflexively gropes it, causing Saori to squirm.

His cheeks immediately blush and his eyes widen in shock as his brain turns into scrambled eggs, not knowing whether to apologize to Saori for accidentally groping her, ask her what the hell she's doing, or to simply keep silent and go with the flow.

"S-Saori... wh-what are you-" he starts stuttering, but Saori interrupts him.

"No!" she whispers softly, but her tone is powerful enough that Tyler instantly stops talking. "E-Even if you say that... that everything is going to be fine, I don't believe you, Tyler! How do you know that everything is going to be fine? How do you know that nothing will happen to us!? What if our teams get separated? How will I know that you are alright, then?"

Silence feels the air as Saori stops talking for a few seconds.

"I love you, Tyler. I love you more than anything that exists in this world... And I don't want to lose you. I... I couldn't stand living without you. Please, just...j-just let me do this."

Looking into her eyes, Tyler can see a flurry of emotions burning brightly inside them, like shining stars in a starry sky. Determination, anxiety, fear, doubt, hope, and many more, but burning brighter than all of them, love and pain.

Forming a gentle smile, Tyler places his hand over Saori's right cheek, looking directly at her eyes affectionately.

"I love you more than anything that exists in the world, too," he says.

"Thank you, Tyler," she whispers with an affectionate smile, and leans down to give him a passionate kiss.

* * *

 **Two days later, Whitehead town**

 **5:35 PM**

Explosions fill the plaza in front of the town hall, as mortar shell after mortar shell falls from the sky, causing craters in the ground and throwing pieces of bricks and dust, as well dirt, everywhere.

"Hana, a squad of enemy soldiers is trying to make it to the nearby houses! Drop them!" Miho orders as she spots a team of five enemy soldiers exiting from a nearby crater the previous artillery barrage has caused, trying to run at the safety of a nearby apartment building.

"On it!" she says and aims the cannon at the running men, firing an HE shell at them. One man manages to dive inside the apartment building just in the nick of time, three of them get obliterated into bloody chunks, and the last one gets blasted backwards, getting showered with a storm of shrapnel.

"Miho, I'll need to change barrel after this belt!" Saori says through the intercom, trying to suppress with the hull-mounted MG-34 some enemy soldiers that are hiding inside a store at the other end of the plaza.

"Roger that!" Miho responds, looking at all the potential targets through her cupola's vision ports. "Hana, targets at the right side of the town hall, near the windows on the first and second floor."

"Aiming," Hana says as she guides the cannon and aims its sight at the outermost window of the town hall's right side. "Ready to fire."

"Fire."

A second later, the room explodes, with concrete chunks, rubble, and mutilated bodies flying everywhere, before the room on the second floor crumbles down from its own weight.

 _"To all units fighting near the town hall, this is Command. Enemy forces are greater than expected. Commence tactical withdrawal to secondary defense line and remain put."_

 _"To all Delta elements, this is Delta Leader. Withdraw at the edge of the plaza and hold till all forces have successfully retreated to the secondary defense line."_

 _"Delta-2 acknowledges."_

 _"Delta-3 acknowledges."_

 _"Delta-4 acknowledges."_

 _"Delta-5 acknowledges,"_ Miho says on the radio.

"So much for a small reconnaissance force," Yukari groans as she pushes another HE shell inside the cannon's breach.

"Changing barrels!" Saori announces as she fires the last bullets of her MG-34.

"Copy that! Hana, try to suppress the soldiers in front of us with the coaxial, until Saori has changed the MG's barrel.

"Copy that," Hana responds, but then an explosion occurs at the tank's left. Looking through the cupola, Miho spots an M60A3 on fire, with pillars of flames spewing out of the cupola and the loader's hatch.

 _"We just lost Delta-3!"_

 _"We need to get out of here or we will get overrun!"_

"Miho, in front of us! Enemy soldier with an RPG, distance 50 meters!" Mako says with widened eyes as she spots the man kneeling in one knee and aiming the shoulder-mounted weapon straight at them.

Knowing she has no time to order Hana to deal with him, and since he is closer than 60 meters the APS won't register the RPG warhead, she stands up and opens her hatch, grabbing the cupola mounted MG-34. But as she aims it at the man and fires, the soldier does the same, too, with the warhead landing directly on the NERA-covered frontal plate, between the driver's vision port and the hull's machine gun. A great fireball devours the front of the tank, as Miho immediately hears Mako screaming through the intercom.

* * *

 **In the next chapter:**

 _ **"Look at what you have done! This is all because of you!"**_

 _ **"I-I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I-I didn't mean for this to happen!"**_

 _ **"An example must be made, Commander. Whether it is sacrificing yourself, going by the book, or doing horrible things, war is war. Everything is allowed."**_

 _ **"Miho... What should we do?"**_

 _ **"...Fire."**_

 **Chapter 36: The Battle of Whitehead**


	36. Chapter 36: The Battle of Whitehead pt 1

**The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 36: The Battle of Whitehead part 1**

* * *

 **Two days after arriving in the US**

 **Whitehead, Arizona**

 **Battle for the city's control under way, Time: 02:16 PM**

 _Vzzit_

 _"Ambush!"_

 _Boom_

 _Fwoosh_

 _"We just lost one of the Strykers!"_

 _"Get the rest of the infantry out there!"_

 _"This is nuts! They are all around us!"_

 _Vzzit_

 _"We need to take care of that sniper!"_

 _"We need to get out of here!"_

 _"Delta-5, do you copy? Delta-5, respond!"_

"Miho! Miho!" Hana yells at her, shaking her strongly to get her to focus. Miho just turns slowly to look at Hana with unfocused eyes, sweat forming on her forehead and rolling down her pale face, the outer layer of her hair having been cut horizontally. A gash settles on top of her left shoulder, blood running out of the wound and seeping on her uniform and shirt.

"Found the first aid kit!" Saori yells and grabs the white box with a red cross on top of it, trying to unstuck it from between two boxes with ammunition for the hull's MG-34. "Hnnnng... Got it!" she says and passes it at Yukari. Mako simply looks at Miho with a worried, and somewhat pale, face.

Yukari quickly passes it to Hana, who sets it on her lap and opens it. The sounds of gunfire, autocannon, and explosions fill the air of the narrow street they find themselves, with the radio filled with screaming and yelling on all channels.

Grabbing a cotton swab and drenching it in antiseptic, the tank shakes violently, causing Hana to bang against the gun's breech and let the cotton swab slip from her grip and fall down. "Dammit," she curses quietly, biting her lower lip slightly and rubbing her right shoulder.

"They are shelling the street!" Mako shouts as she sees a couple of mortar shells landing not far from the front of the tank.

 _"Delta-5,we need you to take care of the sniper, our guys out here are falling like flies!"_ a harsh voice yells at the radio, and since Miho seems to still be shellshocked and shivering quite a lot, Hana turns to Mako to give her orders.

"Mako, can you spot the sniper?"

"I'll try!" she says and tries to look through her vision slit for the sniper, but there's just too much dust and smoke in the air from the explosions to have a clear view. Rising from her seat and slightly opening her hatch so that she can get a better view, she instantly dives back when she sees a glint coming from a building in the distance, and among the pinging sounds of normal bullets, she hears the sound of grinding metal, as the hatch above her gets slightly dented from a sniper bullet.

"Mako, are you okay?" Saori asks quickly when she hears the grinding noise and sees Mako's face draining of all its blood.

"Y-Yeah," she stutters, then looks back at Hana. "E-Enemy sniper at the building at the end of the street, sixth floor. Distance, 540 meters."

"Aiming," Hana says as she raises the cannon and aims at the sixth floor of the building that's at the end of the street. Having taken into account the distance, she makes some minor adjustments and fires the main gun. The HE shell soars through the sky and lands between the sixth and fifth floor, the explosion causing the former to crumble down on the latter.

"Sniper eliminated!" she says as she starts using the coaxial to hit the enemy soldiers that are firing at them from the balconies, or at least trying, since the road is narrow enough that she can't raise the cannon enough to fire over the third, maybe fourth floor.

A rocket comes to them from one of the buildings on their right side, getting intercepted by the APS a meter above the turret, the explosion shaking the tank slightly.

"Huh?" Miho utters out of nowhere, feeling a slightly hot sensation on the top of her head. Trying to move her left arm, a jolting pain flares up on her shoulder, causing her to yelp and cup the wound with her right hand. "Ouch!"

"Miho!" everyone yells and turns to look at her.

"Thank God, you are alright, Miporin!" Saori exclaims. A few bullets bounce off the Panzer's armor, while another rocket gets intercepted by the APS, this time coming from their left side.

 _"Delta-5, we need you to move now!"_ the harsh voice comes through the radio and Miho raises her head just in time to see through her cupola a big explosion, the sound of it filtering through the radio for a moment, then changing to static.

"M-Mako, move forward!" Miho orders, still shaking and sweating, but having regained some of her color.

"Roger," Mako says and moves the Panzer forward.

 _"Finally, Delta-5! We thought you'd never move!"_ another man's voice says through the radio and Miho immediately picks it up.

"Delta Leader! What's the status of the convoy?" she asks quickly as she looks through her cupola's vision ports. "Mako, take a left turn here!" she orders and Mako does so, turning left on the upcoming intersection to get out of the killzone they have found themselves, and avoiding an unguided rocket which lands on the road and craters it slightly, throwing asphalt chunks and dust in the air.

 _"We've lost two Strykers already, and have been cut off from you. There should be a Stryker stuck with you,"_ Miho hears the man say, and as she looks back at the intersection, she finds a Stryker turning into the street her tank is. That is, until a rocket connects with its right side and the whole thing goes up in flames.

"We just lost it..." she says quietly as she looks at the flaming wreck. The sounds of gunfire start sounding more and more distant and less frequent as the still surviving WCC forces start withdrawing from the ambush point.

 _"Damn. Well, the rest of the platoon has dispersed in the nearby streets, so we'll all meet at Relic Street, then push towards the town hall like the plan says. Keep radio silence for the time being, unless there is something important to report."_

"U-Understood," Miho responds with a slight stutter, thanks to the pain she feels from her wounded shoulder. "Mako, stop here for a little," she orders and the tank comes to a halt, with Mako parking it at the side of the road, since it is considerably larger from the previous one.

 _"Good. Be on the predetermined point at an hour, max. We need to assault the town hall before they can fortify and alert the main force. Over and out."_

As the radio transmission gets terminated, Miho sighs heavily and slowly removes her right hand to look at her wound. "I-I think we'll have to stitch it," she says painfully, her hands still shaking from the near-death experience she had just a few minutes ago.

"But, can't you activate your power and heal it, Miss Nishizumi?" Yukari asks, as Miho looks around from her cupola's vision ports to make sure there are no hostiles in the area.

"She's right, Miporin!" Saori exclaims, and even Mako nods.

"No," she responds, and the others look at her confused. "Remember what the Director told me and Odysseus before leaving? Under no circumstances should we activate our powers while in the US. Institute spies will probably be tracking us as potential targets, so if I use my power, it'll be like putting a huge target mark on me and you. I know me and Odysseus were sent as bait to rat them out, but we shouldn't confirm their suspicions right away. "

Silence descends inside the Panzer IV, with only Hana producing some noise as she grabs a few things from the first aid kit.

"We can discuss this later; first of all we need to disinfect the wound and patch it temporarily, then find a safer place where we can stitch it," she says as she turns to look at Miho with a cotton swab drenched in antiseptic. "This might sting a little."

"It's okay," Miho says as she tries her best to remove her uniform's jacket, with Yukari helping as much as she can.

"I'm sorry. I should have insisted that you wore the vest," Saori says with a sad expression, but Miho smiles at her, trying to not show the pain she is feeling.

"It's alright, Saori. The bullet that grazed me was from a sniper rifle, so it would have probably ripped the vest too."

After removing her jacket, Hana slowly pulls at Miho's ruined shirt so that the cut in it gets bigger and starts swabbing the perimeter of the gash, with Miho feeling a very painful stinging coming from it. As she waits for Hana to finish treating the wound, Miho's mind starts wondering on how things came to be like this, especially since it seemed like a very easy mission at the debriefing back on both Blackout's base, and the Platoon HQ when they arrived in the city.

* * *

 **Several hours ago, Blackout's Main Base of Operations, Base's Director's office**

In the base's Director's office, a single figure sits behind a simple desk, reading some kind of reports that he has set up in front of him, while occasionally glancing at his watch with an annoyed expression, sighing slightly through his nose. The room he is inside is simple, with white walls, a tiled floor and a few cabinets full of paperwork here and there. On top of his desk, only a cheap lamp, a few pens, and a pile of paperwork settles, with the man putting the reports he has in front of him in the pile, except for one he keeps in front of him.

"I understand that transportation in this day and age is somewhat difficult with how the world has gone to shit, but being late a whole hour is unacceptable," the man says, glancing at the two figures that stand in front of his desk. One of the figures is a short, Japanese girl with brown hair and eyes, standing at attention, while the other figure is a Caucasian girl with blonde hair and light purple eyes, standing with her arms crossed over her chest, "Miss Nishizumi and Miss Papaioannou."

"And as we told you, two of our squad members overslept, thus why we were late," Odysseus responds back to the man, then turns to look at Miho with a cat-like smirk. "Right, Miho?"

Miho says nothing in response, simply bowing a little at the man. "We are really sorry, Director, but we weren't told what time to report to you." Odysseus just snorts and rolls her eyes, looking back at the Director.

"I want neither your excuses, nor your apologies," the man says in an indifferent tone, picking up the report he has in front of him, as well as taking a few papers from the pile that settles at the desk's right corner. "War won't wait for you before it starts. Anyway, let's start the debriefing."

Both Odysseus and Miho nod, so the man starts explaining the current situation.

"Today, at around 00:49 AM, IST forces broke through the borders without a prior warning, annihilating any forces that had been stationed there. WCC command scrambled in action to stop them, but since HTS launched an invasion at the same time, the allocated forces against IST were not enough to stop them, only to slow them temporarily."

"Wait, wait, wait a second. Who the hell is IST, WCC and HTS?" Odysseus asks confused the Director.

"The other factions. IST stands for Independent State of Texas, WCC for West Coat Coalition, and HTS for Holy Trinity State," he answers and Odysseus widens slightly her eyes in recognition.

"Oh..."

"Anyway, continuing, it was later deduced that IST and HTS had made a non-agression pact between them, seeing that most of IST's forces had been moved to the borders of WCC. Here, take a look," the Director says and retrieves a map of the US with all the major roads and towns on it. Several arrows in red and black marker have been drawn, indicating the movements of the enemy. "As you can see, IST forces have been moving along two major roads, I-10 and I-40. Our tacticians belive the enemy is trying to rush their way towards Tucson and Flagstaff, then assault and capture Phoenix from both flanks. If they manage to capture the city, they'll have a straight line to WCC's capital, LA."

"The enemy must have one hell of a main force if they want to steamroll over allied forces with numbers alone," Odysseus whistles, looking at the map with an attentive eye.

"Won't they be open to flanking hits and get cut-off from supplies?" Miho asks, pointing on the map at the city of Phoenix. "If we let them take Flagstaff and Tucson, they'll probably get cocky and lower their guard. Then if we mount a strong defense in Phoenix, while sending two separate forces to retake Tucson and Flagstaff, or some of the towns that reside on the I-10 and I-40 to cut their supply lines, it should be fairly easy to defeat them and push them back."

"We thought of it, but most of WCC forces are trying to halt HTS's advance before they can get a lot of ground, thus they can't spare the necessary assets to do this," the man counters, and Miho nods understanding.

"Another reason is the equipment being used by all sides. They mostly are WW2, Post-WW2, and Cold War era when it comes to tanks, with very few being modern. For other vehicles, there are a few of modern times, but as their numbers are limited, they'd rather not risk losing them. The weapons and equipment used by the soldiers is mostly modern, but there have been cases of using Cold War era equipment as well."

"Hehe, this makes things a lot easier," Odysseus grins with satisfaction. "I suspect that the construction and maintenance of such vehicles is a lot easier and less expensive, correct?"

"Indeed. It is a lot less resource-intensive to build an M60 and its variants, than building an M1 Abrams or its more modern variants. But I digress, let's return to the briefing. Enemy forces have pushed all the way to Holbrook on I-40, while on I-10 they have pushed till Wilcox, and are currently moving towards Whitehead," the Director points at the town of Whitehead, which is situated between Wilcox and Benson.

"Whitehead? Never heard of that town or seen it in any of the maps," Odysseus says as she looks at the map.

"Because it wasn't much of an official town; it was built by a company on the grounds of a new experimental layout that would allow for more people to live on a small area. It seemingly worked, therefore was named after the company's CEO, William Whitehead." Procuring a layout map of the city, the Director puts it on the desk and unfolds it to show at the girls how the city looks like. "There are three areas within the city that can be considered as strategic locations for the control of the it. First and most important is the town hall and the plaza around it," he says and points at the center of the map. "Anyone who controls this area, has pretty much an open way of flanking the enemy advancing in the flanks," he taps at the side areas of the town, then at the four avenues that seem to be connecting all four sides of the town with the town hall. "Next important location is the hospital in the north part of the town. If you control the hospital, you can effectively cut-off any flanking attempts by the enemy. And the last one is the theater at the south part of the town. This can be used to make sure the enemy won't advance towards the town hall, since it is located at the rightmost side of the town."

"And where will we need all of this?" Odysseus asks with a raised eyebrow, finding this part of the debriefing somewhat unneeded. "Last time I checked, we were tank crews operating tanks, not generals making grand plans to win a campaign."

"But you are not simple conscripts either," the Director says and looks both of the girls in the eyes. "I don't care if the military bigwigs think of you as mere mercenary pawns, you are still Blackout's contractors and are expected to act accordingly. Even if you can't receive orders, you must be able to act on your own and finish your mission. Only if the circumstances do not allow for its completion, only then should you abort."

"That's all well and good, but the military brass probably won't like their units doing things on their own, much less mercenary ones that are there for money," Odysseus answers back, and the man simply closes the map he had laid in his desk, then puts it next to the pile of papers.

"If something like that happens, Blackout will deal will them. But remember, you'll have to uphold our company's reputation, so don't act out of line if you have orders." The man turns his head and daggers Odysseus with his gaze. "Especially you, Miss Papaioannou."

Odysseus says nothing, only snorting and rolling her eyes to the right.

"You might have had complete freedom to do anything you wanted back in Japan, but things are different at this side of the Pacific Ocean. If you act in any way that damages Blackout's image, I'll have you removed as leader of your squad and kicked out of Blackout. Understood?" he asks and Odysseus, albeit reluctantly, nods. "Good. Anyway, let's continue. Your tanks have already been moved in Whitehead. Normally, I'd have you be transported there by trucks or Humvees, but since time is of the essence, and one of you is elite," he makes a small pause, glancing at Miho for a moment, "I'll have you transported there by helicopters. Also," pausing again, he retrieves two white envelopes, one marked with Miho's squad's emblem, while the other has Odysseus' name written on it. "These came yesterday from Japan with high priority. You should read them while in transit."

Taking their respective envelope, both girls look at it, before looking each other in the eyes.

"What about our gear?" Miho asks the Director.

"You'll get geared here before leaving. As for your weapons and supplies you might need for the tanks, they have been moved to Whitehead with them. Now get going, I still have a ton of reports to read," he informs Miho, then waves his hand dismissively to have the girls leave.

"Before we leave, will there be any other squads from Blackout with us?" Odysseus asks and the man puts down the report he had just grabbed to answer her.

"No. Most squads have been moved to the North to combat the HTS, though there are a few moving against the enemy force on I-40."

"Thanks," she answers curtly and goes away, with Miho bowing slightly at the man and following the blonde. As the door closes after the girls exit, Odysseus immediately opens her envelope, removing a folded letter from inside and reading it quickly.

"Oh, would you look at that, my squad's going to gain Elite status if we preform exceptionally well during this campaign," Odysseus says with a mild surprise in her face.

"Really? That's great news!" Miho says to her with a smile, stopping briefly from opening her own envelope.

"Thanks!" Odysseus responds with a smile of her own, then waves her letter in front of her. "Too bad this is purely of a symbolic nature and doesn't give us any perks. You know, since we are not under Blackout's jurisdiction anymore."

"But you never know when our status as elite squads will come in handy. We might be an independent branch, but we still are a branch of Blackout," Miho explains at Odysseus, who puts the letter back to the envelope and then inside one of her uniform's pockets.

"I guess..." Odysseus says shrugging slightly with her shoulders, then looking at Miho's envelope. "Anyway, what does your letter say?" she asks with great interest.

"I haven't read it yet," she responds as she opens the envelope and retrieves the letter that's inside of it. But as she reads more and more of it, her face becomes more and more serious.

"Everything okay?" Odysseus asks when she sees Miho's expression changing into a serious, then a thoughtful one.

"Not really. The letter says Blackout has issued another mission for Ether Force."

"And where's the problem?"

"In around four weeks, all available fighting forces from Ether Force will be moved in Busan to help break the city's siege, then be used to strike at strategic locations to cripple the enemy's infrastructure in hopes of weakening them and eventually pushing them out of Korean soil altogether."

"Wait, how in the name of God will twelve tanks turn the tide of a war that is about to end?" Odysseus asks baffled, and Miho looks at her with a face full of reluctance and thoughtfulness.

"They are going to move Kasai and Kōrino too."

"Ah, now it makes sense. Well, let's hope the girls can withstand the horrors of war and not break apart," Odysseus chuckles darkly, a glint of insanity and amusement appearing in her eyes for a moment.

Miho says nothing in response, simply going back to reading the letter again.

 _I wonder if I can convince the Director to not send them, and instead postpone the plan until me and Odysseus are back... I'll need to get in contact with Yuki and the Director as soon as possible._

As both girls reach the building's front exit, Miho opens the door and-

-breakline-

"Miporin, I am getting a transmission!" Saori says loudly from her seat, bringing Miho out of her thoughts and back to reality. "It's really staticky, though. I'll see if I can clear the signal a little."

"This should do for now," Hana says to Miho as she puts a gauze patch over her wound. Having finished with treating it, Hana closes the first aid kit and passes it to Yukari, who takes it and waits for Saori to finish clearing the signal before she passes it to her.

"Thanks," Miho smiles to Hana, then grabs her headset and puts it on.

 _"This i...itting to...lable cha..els. I rep...smitting to all available channels, can anyone hear me?"_

Hearing the voice, Miho immediately presses a button at the right of her headset and starts talking.

"Odysseus, can you hear me?"

 _"Miho! Finally, someone has responded!"_ Odysseus' voice sounds through everyone's headsets, followed by a long sigh of relief. _"The damn radio has been acting up all this time and I couldn't come in contact with anyone, not even HQ."_

"What's the status of your platoon?" Miho asks, and she hear sounds of small chatter filtering through Odysseus' mic, though they're quiet enough she can't make out what they are saying.

 _"Fucking gone! Only me and Echo-4 survived the ambush, and we have with us a single Bradley and two M113A3s."_ Another sigh leaves Odysseus' mouth, this time a frustrated one. _"This is exactly why I didn't want to come into a fucking war once again! Just death and destruction waiting for you on every damn corner!"_ Miho hears her mumbling something in a displeased voice, but before she can ask her what, Odysseus starts talking again. _"Anyway, are all of you alright? You nearly got your head blown off by a sniper."_

"You saw it?" Miho asks in surprise.

 _"Yep, both shots. You are lucky that guy missed them. I've seen people getting ripped apart from sniper bullets."_ Miho senses a chill running through her spine, feeling her wound flaring with pain and causing her to wince slightly.

"Well, one of the bullets did graze me on my shoulder and gave me a gash, but no shrapnel got stuck in it."

 _"Talk about luck. Oh, right, almost forgot, but Echo-4 contacted the HQ and we were told to link up with Sigma and Hotel platoons, then push toward the hospital and capture it. It seems the enemy is trying to advance through the north to delay our own advance. I really think we are not facing a small reconnaissance force here-."_

Suddenly, a loud explosion is heard from coming from Odysseus' side, prompting the blonde girl to start swearing.

 _"For fuck's sake, not again! Reiji, enemy troops at two o'clock, armed with a launcher! Annabelle, get us-"_

As the transmission cuts off, an uneasy silence fills the air, only the sound of the tank's idle engine filling the interior. Everyone has expressions full of concern and worry, even more so Saori who is concerned over Tyler's well-being.

"Well... I-I'm sure they'll be fine. Odysseus is a capable commander and has been in situations like this before," she says to mainly calm down Saori and alleviate some of the atmosphere's intensity. "At any rate, we need to meet with the rest of the Delta platoon at Relic Street; staying here on our own is very dangerous. Mako, go two blocks straight, then make a right turn at the first road you see," Miho orders after grabbing the map that settles on the right of her seat and inspecting it for a few moments.

"Roger," Mako responds and gets the tank moving, while Miho goes back to inspecting the map, glancing at her surroundings through the cupola's vision ports every now and then. But as Mako slowly makes her way at said street and rounds the corner, the girls hear an explosion coming from further down the road, prompting Mako to immediately pull the brakes. A shell flies past them, nearly hitting the right side of the tank's upper hull plate.

"Mako, reverse!" Miho orders and the tank moves back, hiding behind the building's corner before the unknown enemy can fire again.

"That was close..." Mako comments after stopping the tank on Miho's order, having seen the shell flying less than a meter away from her vision port.

"Hana, keep the cannon aimed at the corner of the building. Yukari, get ready to load a shell based on the target," she says and the girls comply, then everyone grows silent for a few moments.

"Hmm... I don't hear any other running engine except from ours. Maybe the enemy is not pursuing?" Miho wonders aloud, doing her best to hear for any other sounds other than the Panzer's engine.

"Or the enemy might be a towed anti-tank?" Yukari suggests, which is another possibility.

"But, aren't towed anti-tank guns considered obsolete in this day and age, and only used as stationary defenses?" Saori asks, remembering what little she had read from a book about modern warfare and its evolution back in Blackout.

"If we were talking about the pre-apocalyptic world, then yeah, you are right," Miho responds. "But considering how things have become after the earthquakes, and the equipment used by the enemy, it wouldn't seem that unlikely to me."

Grabbing the city's map from her side and finding where they are, Miho quickly scans the surrounding area on it, then turns to Mako.

"Mako, reverse the tank until you reach the previous street, then turn on it and go till you almost reach its end."

"Roger," Mako responds and starts reversing. Miho rises through her cupola briefly to close its hatch, since she had forgotten about it because of the whole ambush and her near-death experience. Reaching the previous street, the tank turns right and starts traversing through it slowly, with Mako stopping only a few meters before its end, but still back enough so that the cannon's barrel isn't visible at the directions of the intersecting streets.

"Saori, grab your rifle and come with me. The rest of you, stay on your guard. If we, or you, get in trouble, break radio silence and alert our platoon of our position."

"Hai!"everyone responds and Miho pulls herself out of the tank, carefully descending from its front and down to the ground. Saori exits from her hatch, then grabs an assault rifle that she has somehow squeezed next to her seat and joins Miho. Both of them quickly make their way at the end of the street, backing against the building's corner. While Saori scans the nearby buildings with her assault rifle, Miho carefully peers over the corner.

"That's unexpected," she mutters to herself, as she finds a lone M60A3 in the middle of the next crossroad. The tank is covered in ERA armor, as well it has three horizontal, yellow lines going across the sides of its turret and the emblem of the WCC, which is all the states of America's west coast colored black in a yellow background. She can also see three people, probably crew members of the tank, two that inspect the front part of the tank's suspension, and one that is partially out of the commander's cupola, scanning the surrounding area with a pair of binoculars. All of them are wearing a military uniform and a helmet.

"Is something wrong?" Saori asks and she too peers over the corner. "Wait, aren't these guys allies? Why did they shoot us?" she asks a little bit confused, seeing the tank's markings.

"They might have thought we were enemies; they probably heard the Panzer's engine and pre-aimed at the corner, then fired the moment they saw us.

"So, why are they not moving? Staying in the open like that is very dangerous."

"It seems they have thrown a track," Miho says and points at the tank's track, which, while is fine, has come off the front sprocket wheel and is partially hanging in the air at a weird angle.

"Oh. Ugh, this brings back memories," Saori sighs in displeasure, remembering the hassle they had to go through every time one of their tank's tracks came off. "I feel like my arms are going numb."

Miho simply giggles at that, remembering the first time the girls had to put back a thrown track. It was during practice and it had rained previously, so the ground was muddy. While Miho had done it before during her time in Kuromorimine, and in a Tiger no less, the girls were struggling a lot. In the end, everyone except Miho and Hana were covered from head to toe in mud, thanks to constantly slipping and falling down.

"Come on, let's go back," Miho says to Saori and they both make their way back at the Panzer IV.

"What did you find, Miss Nishizumi?" Yukari asks as Miho enters the tank and sits down on her seat.

"A friendly M60. One of their tracks has come off."

"Then why did they shoot us?" Hana asks.

"They probably heard our engine and thought we were an enemy, so they shot us the moment we came off the corner." Putting on her headset, she turns to Mako. "Mako, get on the intersection and turn left, then go towards the friendly tank. Hana, keep your guard up just in case, but do not engage unless I say otherwise."

"Roger," both girls respond, and as the tank starts slowly moving, Miho partially exits through her cupola. She silently prays that there are no snipers hidden in the nearby buildings, and somewhat feels her legs bending on their own, trying to completely pull her inside the tank. As the Panzer IV exits at the intersection and turns left, Miho sees the two men that are trying to fix the tank's track dump their tools on the road and running at the other side of the metal machine, while the commander dives inside the turret. As the M60A3 starts rotating its turret to aim at them, Miho waves her arm up in the air to indicate she's friendly.

The turret stops rotating and the commander gets back out, saying something at the men that have hid behind the M60A3.

"You sure gave us a scare," the man says loudly as the Panzer stops a few meters away from the MBT. The men that had previously been repairing the track return to their work, picking up their tools and getting on repairing the track as fast as they can. "Sorry for shooting you before, we didn't really know if you were an ally or an enemy. Being stranded in the middle of a crossroad tends to make you a little trigger happy."

"You were the one that told me to fire at will-Ouch!" the gunner shouts from inside the tank and the commander slightly kicks him.

"Anyway, glad you came out of the ambush unscathed, or at least in one piece," he comments, spotting Miho's ripped shirt and gauze patch.

"Yeah, I was lucky both missed my head," Miho says and the man slightly chuckles. "Your name was Miles, right?" she asks hesitantly, kinda remembering his name from the meeting all Delta's commanders had before the start of the mission.

"Ah, so you do remember me!" the man grins at her. "Sergeant Ryan Miles, aka Delta-4, at your service," he salutes her casually. "So, are you free after the mission?"

"Huh?"

"Commander, instead of flirting with her, why don't you come and give us a hand with the repairs?" one of the men trying to fix the track says panting.

"I can't Joe, I need to keep a lookout for potential enemies," Ryan responds and turns back to Miho. "So, what do you say? I know a guy that can get me some authentic scotch from England, really good stuff. A little liquor after a hard mission always helps. Or we can just hang out if drinking isn't your thing."

Miho just stares dumbly at him, having no idea how to respond back. Frankly speaking, she hardly ever had anyone flirt with her, even less so straight-forward as him. Being she had always been going to female-only schools, her experiences in that regard were really lackluster. The closest to flirting she had ever come was a love letter she had found in her locker during her time in Kuromorimine's middle school.

"Ryan, just come and help, or we'll be done with it tomorrow," the second man that is trying to fix the track says, standing up and pointing at Miho. "If you are so adamant about someone looking for potential dangers, then she can do it."

"Fine, fine, you got me there," he says and gets out of the tank completely. "Please keep a lookout for any possible enemies till we repair the damage," he says at Miho, then descends the tank and starts helping with the repairs.

Miho nods and dives back inside the tank to grab her binoculars, but the moment she sits on her seat, she finds four pairs of eyes gazing at her. Looking back at them with her own, confused expression, she silently stares back at them for a few seconds, trying to understand what they expect from her.

"Is something wrong?"

"Well...you see...I might have opened my hatch to let some cool air to enter, since it was getting really hot, and unintentionally might have heard what that man was telling you...ehehehe..." Saori says awkwardly and laughs a little.

"O-Oh, I see," Miho stutters slightly, a tinge of red sneaking on her cheeks, though it's barely noticeable.

"So?" Saori asks expectantly. Miho, although isn't sure, thinks she can see her friend's eyes glittering slightly.

"I-It's kinda sudden, don't you think?" Miho asks Saori rhetorically. "I just met him today at the platoon's meeting."

"Yes, but he is a good-looking and handsome man, not to mention he is clearly interested in you," Saori says quickly.

"I support it if he'll give us lots of cake and sweets," Mako comments with a thumbs up and a sleepy voice, causing everyone to chuckle.

"I'm sorry, Saori, but I'm not interested," Miho responds.

"Oh, that's too bad. What about the rest of you? Have you ever had anyone come and flirt with you or ask you on a date?" Saori asks the rest out of curiosity. In the meantime, Miho grabs her binoculars and partially exits from her cupola, scanning the surrounding buildings and streets for any dangers.

"I had a boy come and ask me out when I was in my second year of junior highschool," Yukari says first, and everyone looks at her with surprise.

"Really? Didn't you say you didn't have that many friends when you were younger?" Saori asks and Yukari nods.

"I didn't really know the boy, only that he was at the same class with me."

"The same class? You were going in a co-ed school before coming to Ooarai?"

"Yes. I came at Ooarai starting the first year of high school. That's when my parents moved their business on the carrier too."

"Oh, wow," Saori says, then returns to the subject. "Anyway, what happened with the boy?"

"I got so surprised and flustered, that I started telling him random facts about the M4 Sherman," Yukari says and chuckles awkwardly, scratching her left cheek in embarrassment. "So he kinda looked at me weirdly, then left."

"That's too bad," Saori says with a sigh, though a gentle smile forms on her face. "But I'm sure you'll do fine next time. How about you, Hana?"

"I always went on female-only schools, so I didn't have that many interactions with boys my age, and my family was really strict when it came to such things," Hana answers and Saori nods.

"What about now?"

"Now?" Hana asks cluelessly.

"Yeah. You know, about Reiji?" Saori says and winks at her. "The guy is really interested in you. Haven't you noticed?"

"I know we have been talking a lot more lately, but I didn't think it was because of something like that." Placing her index finger in her cheek, Hana adopts a thoughtful expression. "Then again, it'd make sense if that was the case, now that I think about it."

"So, you like him?" Saori asks and Hana looks at her.

"Well..."

As the girls keep talking, Miho keeps scanning the surrounding environment with her binoculars. A gentle smile forms on her face as she hears her friends chatting happily, free of any worries, at least for now. Things might have not started well, but she feels everything is going to be fine.

* * *

 **A few kilometers away from Anglerfish Team, north part of the town**

 **Antelope Team**

In the empty streets of Whitehead, five vehicles move in a column, two tanks, two APCs, and an AFV.

At the front leading the column is Antelope's black-colored Cerberus tank, sporting various scratches on its paintjob that show the steel's original, metallic grey color. Some of the NERA blocks in the front have been destroyed, while the machine-gun that's in front of the cupola is missing, like something blew it out of its place.

Standing partly out of the cupola, a blonde girl with light purple eyes looks at the buildings around her, trying to find where exactly she is on the map she is holding in front of her.

"Okay, we are still on course," she mutters on herself and marks a road on the map, then dives inside the tank and closes her hatch. Looking at the map one more time, she folds it and looks towards her driver. "Annabelle, keep going straight, and after passing four intersections, turn left and go straight. This should lead us straight at the hospital's parking lot."

"Copy that," Annabelle responds.

"Hah... I just hope we don't pass through another ambush point. With how shitty the damn APS is, I don't think we'll make it out alive if they have rockets," Odysseus sighs, gently massaging her forehead.

"I'm pretty sure we are not dealing with a small reconnaissance force here. Their troops are just too many to match up with the scout reports we got a glance at the temporary HQ," the loader says, looking at the ammorack on his right and mentally counting the shells in it.

"They probably came from other roads to avoid detection. After all, the idiots that command this army posted sentries only at the end of the town to overlook the enemy's advance on I-10," Odysseus answers back. "We'd probably have heard a bit more if we were in time for the briefing, Tyler..." she says with a miffed expression, "but nooooo, you had to take your sweet time with Saori... both yesterday and today..."

"Look, I'm sorry for "delaying" us all today, but can you stop this? Every time I talk to you, you bring this up and it has started becoming more than annoying. I don't know why you've been acting like a spoiled brat since you woke up, but even I have my limits," Tyler says with a serious expression.

"Knock it off you two, will ya?" Annabelle says loudly from her seat before Odysseus can retort. "Odysseus, what Tyler did with Saori is none of our business, alright? So stop bringing it up every time you speak with him and let him be."

"Fine, fine, whatever," Odysseus murmurs and starts looking outside her cupola's vision ports to take her mind off her aching abdomen that doesn't seem to want to leave her alone.

"And Tyler, be more lenient with her. You know this time of the month is difficult for her," Annabelle continues and Tyler sighs in response.

"Fine, I'll be more lenient with her," Tyler responds, going back at counting the remaining shells in the ammorack, before a question pops in his mind. "Say, what will happen with the ambush point? It's not like we cleared it from enemies, we simply passed through it as fast as we could."

"HQ has marked the location for artillery barrage and have also sent a few cleaning squads to mop up what will remain of the enemy. The same goes for the previous ambush point," Odysseus says, still looking outside of her cupola.

"But won't the enemy change locations? If I'm not wrong, you said earlier that the artillery batteries hadn't been set up yet," the gunner asks, and Odysseus points at him with her left hand without looking at him.

"Exactly, Reiji," she responds and Reiji looks back at her confused.

"So, there's no point in this. They'll just expend ammunition to hit enemies that'll be long gone."

"Aha, no point at all. You see, Reiji, when you are high and mighty and you are sitting on a chair inside some green tent X amount of kilometers away from the frontlines, you tend to forget the small details of the "big picture" you are looking at. The only thing you can see are wooden pieces on a map, a few painted arrows, and numbers on a piece of paper," Odysseus answers with a slight anger, remembering some of the impossible tasks her unit had been given back at the Third Balkan War. "In the end, we are nothing but disposable pawns," she whispers quietly, balling her right hand into a fist.

"Is that why you hate any form of military hierarchy?" Tyler asks out of curiosity, but then adds one more thing. "Except for your past, of course."

"I just never liked those guys. Sitting behind a desk back at their home, signing papers and sending people to die, like they are some sort of sacrificial lambs. And when said war that they have been "fighting" ends, they just hoard all the glory and medals, praised for their exemplary performance and iron will, while the simple soldier will get nothing and be forgotten, no reward for the hell he had to go through." Every word she utters is as cold as the Siberian wilderness, sending chills in everyone's spines. "I've seen what this hierarchy can do to people, how they, who are above, abuse its power to do whatever they want with those that are below." A few unpleasant memories from her time at the Reaper Program surface in Odysseus' mind, and her eyes start changing color, a small, hazy, blue fire appearing from the left one. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath to calm down, she looks down at Tyler with a neutral expression. "But that's just my own biased opinion anyway. And the reason why I hate anything that gives people power over someone that much."

"Uhm...okay...thanks, I guess?" Tyler says uncertain, having heard more than what he thought his commander would answer to his question.

"By the way, can I ask you something Reiji?" Odysseus asks her gunner, who glances at her for a moment and nods, before going back at looking through the gunner's sight to scan for any enemies.

"What is it?" Reiji asks.

"Do you know why Hana has been giving me uneasy gazes the past two days?" she asks, and Reiji hesitates to answer for a few seconds. Although Odysseus knows the reason why Hana has been acting so reserved when around her, she still wants to hear it from Reiji himself.

"I told her you killed Mizuki."

Silence falls inside the tank, only its running engine and its treads making any noise.

"Well, I guess they'd find out sooner or later," Odysseus sighs, spacing out for a moment.

"We have been over this too many times to count, it wasn't her fault, Reiji. She couldn't have done anything else," Annabelle says as she turns the tank at the intersection Odysseus had told her.

"But that doesn't change the fact I killed her. Maybe if I had done something differently... maybe she would have been still with us," Odysseus says in a bitter voice.

"The past is the past. We cannot change it however much we try," Reiji says slowly, a hint of sadness in his voice. "And while I'll never forgive you for Mizuki, even I awknowledge that she couldn't be saved at that point. And if things had played different, yes she'd most likely be alive... but we wouldn't."

"Even if you say that, it still won't make me feel any better."

"It wasn't meant to."

"Anyway, do we even know what forces the enemy has on the hospital?" Annabelle asks to change the subject, and Odysseus ducks a little to look at her.

"Nope, HQ didn't say. I guess we'll learn when we get there," Odysseus responds.

"They'll surely have infantry. Maybe a few AFVs and IFVs too?" Tyler says and Odysseus shrugs.

"Most likely. Even if they are a small reconnaissance force - which they aren't - they should have at least transports for their troops."

Suddenly the radio statics and a voice bleeds through Odysseus' wireless headset.

 _"Echo squad, this is Sigma Leader, do you copy? "_

"This is Echo-5, I hear you loud and clear, Sigma Leader," Odysseus responds on her headset's microphone.

 _"What's your current status?"_

"Me and Echo-4 are approaching the hospital from south, ETA about five to seven minutes. We have with us a single Bradley and two APCs," Odysseus responds, looking through her cupola's vision ports at the hospital building that stands in the distance.

 _"Copy that, Echo-5. Intelligence show that the enemy is moving reinforcements at the hospital as we speak, so it is imperative that we retake it ASAP,"_ Sigma Leader says.

"Do you know the enemy's strength?" Odysseus asks.

 _"Several infantry squads inside the hospital, equipped with rocket launchers and machine-guns. There are also a few AFVs, probably the transports for the troops."_

"Shit..." Odysseus murmurs to herself, hoping the enemy won't have that many rocket launchers.

 _"Because of this, we'll begin the attack now to draw most enemy fire on us. Use this chance to unload your troops and assault the hospital and kill any enemies occupying it."_

"Copy that, Sigma Leader," Odysseus says but the man at the other end of the transmission adds one more thing.

 _"HQ also ordered us to minimize damage to the hospital, since most of the patients weren't evacuated during the town's evacuation."_

"You know that's impossible, right?" Odysseus asks on the radio but gets no answer.

"What happened?" Tyler asks as Odysseus switches frequencies to contact the vehicles that are with her.

"Guy told me that Command ordered us to keep the damage to the hospital to minimum, since it wasn't properly evacuated. What frequency did I give the guys?"

"Isn't that normal to do?" Annabelle asks with a raised eyebrow, and Odysseus is quick to respond.

"Not when there is a good chance we won't get out of the fight alive." Remembering the frequency she had given the other commanders in her armored column, she switches to it. "The enemy has dug in the hospital, their weaponry consists of LMGs and rocket launchers, and they have AFV support."

"But we can't just fire directly in the building and kill civilians," Annabelle retorts. Sounds of gunfire and explosions start sounding in the hospital's direction, signing the start of the attack.

Pressing a button on her headset, Odysseus starts talking to the other vehicle commanders.

"To all column elements, this is Echo-5. We just got into contact with Sigma-Leader. Long story short, we need to take the hospital before the enemy brings reinforcements and fortify this place. We'll be coming from the south side of the hospital, which means we'll be exiting to its parking lot, a perfect place to set up a killzone. Because of that, me and Echo-4 will enter first, while..."

While Odysseus explains everything at the other commanders, Reiji keeps scanning the big hospital in the distance, a white building with four floors (if we take into account the ground floor). In each floor, there are several small balconies, while in front of the building is a huge parking lot, littered with various types of abandoned vehicles.

"This is not good..." Reiji mutters as he keeps scanning the building, finding more and more enemies waiting for them. Several enemy soldiers are placed on the rooftop of the hospital, while machine-guns have been set up in the small balconies, and half a dozen AFVs and APCs are in the parking lot, their autocannons and machine-guns aiming towards them.

"Hey, Odysseus, I think they are expecting us," Reiji says at his commander.

"...so do not unload any infantry until I say so," Odysseus instructs at the radio, then looks through her cupola. "The hell? Wasn't Sigma's attack supposed to draw most of the enemies away from this side?" Odysseus asks rhetorically, then turns at Reiji. "Target the Bradleys first and leave the M113s for last. Also, if you see any infantry with a rocket launcher, gun them down with the coaxial. Annabelle, reduce speed and let Reiji aim for the Bradleys."

"Copy that," both Reiji and Annabelle respond. As the tank starts bleeding speed, Reiji aims the cannon at one of the Bradleys. "On the way."

Firing the cannon, the shell takes less than a second to make contact with the AFV, piercing right through its turret ring and killing both the commander and the gunner.

"Target hit, but still operational," Reiji announces, trying to re-acquire the wounded Bradley, but it pulls back in cover before he can fire.

"Up!" Tyler shouts as he throws in the gun breech another APFSDS shell.

"Ammo count?" Odysseus asks as she watches through the cupola the space in front of her litting up with 25mm tracer rounds, lights red and green hitting the road in front of her and her tank's armor. "Ugh, I really wish we had composite armor..."

"Ten APFSDS, ten HE-F, and nine HEAT-FS," Tyler answers back, picking another 130mm shell and waiting for Reiji to fire. "Even if I lift these things a thousand times, they still don't get any lighter."

Firing again, Reiji nails yet another Bradley, this time piercing through the angled front and hitting its ammunition belts and detonating them, causing its turret to fly off the hull and plunge into the ground. Echo 4's tank starts advancing next to the Cerberus, matching its speed to Blackout's MBT and firing its gun, hitting one of the enemy M113s. The last operational Bradley bears its sights on Echo-4, and a rectangular box that has two holes starts moving at the left side of the Bradley's turret, leveling parallel to the ground.

"You've got to be kidding me..." Odysseus says with slightly widened eyes, seeing a TOW missile leaving the missile launcher of the Bradley and moving towards Echo-4, striking it dead center on its upper glacis, penetrating and killing all the crew instantly. As Echo-4's tank slows to a halt, already smoking heavily, Reiji acquires the last Bradley and fires, scoring yet another kill as the shell penetrates and kills all the crew.

"For fuck's sake, not Echo-4 too!" Odysseus complains as she momentarily looks at the M60A3, a sizeable hole in its upper glacis from where black smoke exits.

"The APCs are moving out," Reiji informs Odysseus as he sees the enemy M113s turning around and leaving the hospital grounds towards safety. The wounded Bradley that Reiji had hit at the start of the engagement tries to make a run for it too, but the friendly Bradley, which is now positioned behind and to the right of Odysseus' tank fires its autocannon, scoring several hits and killing the surviving crew member.

"Let them be, we have other concerns right now," Odysseus says, looking at the plethora of guns and rockets aimed at them.

 _Beep-Beep-Beep_

The lock-on alarm starts beeping, and from the hospital's rooftop a Javelin missile gets launched, soaring through the sky towards the Cerberus.

"Javelin incoming! Annabelle, floor it!" Odysseus orders and Annabelle does just that, the tank accelerating suddenly. As the missile reaches above the tank, it turns to dive straight for the turret. Reaching around 2 meters away from it, the missile suddenly swerves to its right and barely misses the tank, hitting the ground next to it and exploding.

"Jesus Christ, that was a close one!" Odysseus almost shouts as the tank slightly shakes from the explosion. "Thank the gods the Soft-Kill APS we have decided to work!"

 _Ping-Ping-Ping-Ping_

Exiting from the road they are currently in and into the hospital's parking lot, a hail of bullets and rounds starts showering them, bouncing off of their armor, sparking with every hit.

"Reiji, start hitting them with the coaxial!" Odysseus orders as the gunners of the M113s open fire with their .50 cal machine-guns, always staying behind Odysseus' tank and the friendly Bradley. The sounds of explosions and gunfire that could be heard from the other side of the hospital previously have gone silent, which greatly worried Odysseus, though she has no time to think about it. "Prioritize any targets with AT capabilities!"

Reiji starts firing his coaxial at the balconies of the first floor, hitting several enemies and suppressing a bunch more. But for every one that gets killed, two more pop out, and things start getting more hectic with each passing second.

 _"Echo-5, we should retreat immediately! I'm unable to contact anyone from Sigma or Hotel platoons, and the enemy's numbers keep rising!"_ one of the M113s' commanders contacts Odysseus, more specifically the one that is hiding behind her tank.

"Good luck doing that when you have a dozen missiles and rockets aimed at you! Our only chance at surviving is killing enough of those guys, then unloading infantry to clear the hospital!" Odysseus shouts back as several rockets strike the ground around her tank and the nearby abandoned vehicles. "Hey, Reiji, can't you hit more accurately? You are missing most of your shots and not that many enemies get suppressed by them."

"Want to try aiming the coaxial when the tank is moving so erratically?" Reiji mutters, letting a short burst at one of the second floor balconies, the bullets striking the concrete and chipping away small chunks of it.

"Hey, want to try driving a tank through a lot full of abandoned cars while evading enemy rockets!?" Annabelle shouts from her seat, moving this and that way to avoid crushing any vehicles and lose speed.

 _"Echo-5, this is Sigma Leader, do you copy?"_ suddenly Sigma Leader's voice is heard through Odysseus' headset, which causes her to look away from her cupola's vision ports for a second.

"Where the fuck are you, Sigma!? We are getting hammered over here!" she yells at her microphone, and the man at the other end of the line cringes from the sudden volume change.

 _"We've retreated it from the hospit-"_

"You did what!? Then why the fuck are we still trying to capture it!?" Odysseus cuts off Sigma before he can finish his sentence, yelling at him as loudly as possible.

 _"I was trying to contact you the moment HQ decided to order the pause of the attack to regroup, but we couldn't find a connection!"_ Sigma shouts back the same as Odysseus, and the blonde girl falls silent. _"You are lucky we stumbled on the frequency you and the other vehicles with you use, or we would have left you there for dead."_ Sighing loudly, Sigma takes a moment to recollect himself and continues talking. _"Command also tried contacting you and they couldn't get through, but that hardly matters now. Listen, Hotel platoon will try to attack the enemy from the north again, while we are coming to reinforce you, ETA five minutes."_ The transmission cuts off and Odysseus turns to look first through her cupola, then back at her crew.

"Everything alright?" Tyler asks, holding no shell on his hands since Reiji is firing only the coaxial.

"Sigma and Hotel retreated due to heavy enemy presence, they have regrouped and will attack again, with Sigma platoon reinforcing us," the blonde responds, then presses her headset's button to talk. "Listen everyone, we'll be getting reinforcements in five minutes, so hang on!"

 _"We won't be able to last five minutes!"_ one of the M113 commanders shouts, the sounds of explosions and bullets filtering through his microphone. _"I've already lost my machine-gun gunner, we are sitting ducks here!"_

A rocket hits Odysseus' tank square at the front of the turret, thankfully getting neutralized by the NERA blocks, but causing the vehicle to shake violently.

"That's why I'm lifting the restriction on weapons! Use everything you've got to kill the enemy!" she announces and silence falls across the line.

 _"But-!"_ the M113 commander tries to retort, only to get cut by Odysseus.

"I'll take responsibility for it, so unless you want these grounds to be your resting place, I suggest you follow my orders! Hit the hospital with everything you've got!" Not waiting for the commander to respond, Odysseus cuts the transmission and turns to Reiji, then to Tyler. "Reiji, start using the cannon, target any soldier with a rocket launcher! Tyler, you load HE-F. If we run out of them, use HEAT!" she orders and everyone looks at her.

"What!? You'll kill innocent people!" Annabelle immediately objects her orders, but because she takes her attention away from driving, she crashes on an SUV, the tank shaking violently again and almost stopping, the treads slowly eating and crushing under them the civilian vehicle. Seeing this chance, several enemy soldiers peek over the short wall that surrounds the edge of the rooftop of the hospital, aiming their guns and rocket launchers at the almost immobilized steel beast.

 _Boom-Boom-Boom_

The Bradley's 25mm autocannon starts firing, showering the hospital's wall with HE-F shells, either suppressing the enemy combatants or killing them outright.

"... Awknowledged," Reiji responds as another rocket hits the remaining NERA blocks on the turret's front. Another rocket and they'll be done for.

"Dude, are you sure about this?" Tyler asks, not really wanting to do this but picking a HE-F shell to load into the breech nonetheless.

"We have no other choice..." Reiji says uneasily, aiming the cannon at a soldier who holds a LAW rocket launcher, aiming at them from a balcony at the third floor. "Orders are orders..."

"Wait, Reiji, don't do it!" Annabelle yells, stopping the tank from moving due to her panic.

Hesitating for a moment, Reiji finally presses the trigger and the APFSDS shell that was in the breech from before gets fired, passing through the balcony's concrete and hitting the soldier in the abdomen, cutting him in half with such strength that the halves get blown back, slapping against the balcony windows, while the shell passes through them too and enters the patient room, getting lodged in the ceiling.

"What have you done!? You might have killed one of the patients!" Annabelle shouts at Odysseus in anger. The Bradley keeps using its autocannon, even stopping to fire its two ATGMs at the building in an attempt to suppress and kill as many soldiers as possible, while the two APCs keep hiding behind the better armored vehicles to minimize the chances of getting hit.

"I don't care if I have to level the entire hospital to survive, Annabelle, I'm not putting a bunch of strangers' lives over my own!" Odysseus shouts back at her driver, then turns to her gunner. "Reiji, keep firing!"

"No!" Annabelle shouts and puts the tank on reverse. But in her attempt to throw Reiji's aim off, she unwillingly uses as much acceleration as possible, and the tank veers off slightly to the right, hitting the M113 that was hiding behind them at its right side, stunning its driver and causing it to spin clockwise enough so that its left side faces the hospital, while the Cerberus stops with its right side facing the hospital.

"The fuck are you doing, Annabelle!?" Odysseus asks incredulously her driver, just before hearing an explosion near them.

 _Boom!_

Looking through her cupola, she finds the hit M113 in flames, black smoke and fire consuming it greedily. A hatch opens from its top and out comes a flaming figure, which drags itself out of the burning coffin, before falling off its right side. Odysseus slowly widens her eyes, a furious expression settling on her face. Her hearing goes out and gets replaced by a soft ringing, completely canceling her crew members' shouts, as well as the confused voices over the radio asking what the hell just happened. But despite this, it's as if she can clearly hear the burning man's screams of pain and agony, sending shivers down her spine. Like back that wretched day, when she lost everything. Opening her hatch violently, Odysseus climbs out of the tank, as its turret starts turning to face the hospital, jumping off the turret's left side and onto the hull, next to the driver's hatch. A few bullets fly close to her, but she gives it no heed as she opens the hatch and looks down at Annabelle.

"Eh!?" Annabelle yelps at first, fearing an enemy had somehow managed to sneak in the tank, but as she sees her blonde friend, an expression of incredulousness morphs in her face. "Wh-What are you doi-eeehhhh!?" she starts saying but gets cut off by Odysseus as the blonde grabs the back of her uniform's collar and pulls her out of her seat, then throws her off the hull's edge.

 _Ping-ping-ping_

Several bullets hit the hull's roof and bounce off of it, so Odysseus dives off the hull's edge too to take cover.

"Are you out of your mind!? What was all of this about!?" Annabelle shouts at Odysseus with a painful expression, rubbing her left shoulder with which she landed on the hard asphalt of the parking lot. Odysseus simply grabs Annabelle from the collar of her shirt and pushes her back, causing her to hit her head at one of the suspension's wheels. Thankfully the helmet she had been wearing takes most of the hit's force, though it still makes her get disoriented.

"Reiji, throw everything we've got at the hospital and don't stop until its whole side is nothing but rubble!" Odysseus yells at her microphone, then turns back at her driver. "As for you," grabbing the disoriented Annabelle from her collar's uniform once again, this time she yanks her closer to her face, looking at the redhead with eyes full of anger. "That should be my line! Who the fuck told you to reverse!?"

"You would have killed civilians!" Annabelle shouts back at the blonde, then turns as soon as she hears the 130mm cannon firing. A great explosion consumes one of the rooms on the second floor, throwing chunks of concrete and pieces of metal rods everywhere, along with a mutilated body.

"Are you fucking serious right now!?"

 _"Echo-5, this is Sigma Leader. We are entering hospital grounds right behind you, check for friendly fire."_

 _"This is Hotel Leader, we have arrived at the hospital through the north. We have no enemies in sight, proceeding to unload infantry."_

Looking back at the street from where they had come, Odysseus sees four M60A3s exiting from it, followed by a Stryker, a Bradley, and two M113s. As the tanks spread in the parking lot and start firing their machine-guns at the hospital, the AFVs and APCs unload their troops, with soldiers disembarking and taking cover behind the abandoned cars or the tanks.

 _"The enemy seems to be retreating,"_ Reiji says on the radio, noticing that the enemy is starting to withdraw from the rooftop and balconies, trying to make their way towards the west side of the hospital to retreat towards a safer area. Two of the M60 tanks turn and make their way towards the west side, followed by a Bradley and two infantry squads. The rest of the squads enter the hospital to help clear it of any enemies, while the tanks set a defensive perimeter at the parking lot.

Standing up and dusting herself a little, Odysseus grabs Annabelle by her hand and drags her a few meters away from their tank.

"Hey, what are you-!?" Annabelle tries to protest, but Odysseus pulls her with as much strength as she can put on her right arm, causing the redhead to lose her footing and fall on the ground face down. "Ouch! What has gott-" As Annabelle tries to stand up, she unconsciously lifts her head and finds herself face to face with the charred body of the man that had exited the flaming M113.

 **"A-Ah..."** Annabelle manages to utter at first, her body freezing from shock and her eyes widening as much as possible.

 **"A-Ah... Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!"** she finally screams as panic overcomes her shock. Trying to push herself away from this horrific sight, she feels something weighing down on her back. Snapping her head back and up, she sees Odysseus pressing her right boot right against her, her face projecting a furious expression. "E-Elpida, let me go! Let me go, please!" Annabelle pleads, but Odysseus just puts more pressure on her foot, keeping her driver pinned down, even leaning forward a little. Sounds of gunfire start echoing throughout the hospital, but they do little to drown out Annabelle's screams and Odysseus' yelling.

"You want to play the fucking hero!? You want to protect the weak and powerless in this godforsaken place!? Then be my guest!" Naturally, all this screaming and yelling attracts the attention of the nearby tank commanders, who turn to look at what's going on. Even Reiji and Tyler get out of the tank to look at what's happening. "But do it without killing others in their place! Your retarded little stunt just cost the lives of almost a dozen men!" Pointing at the charred corpse, Annabelle doesn't know whether to scream in horror or stay silent in shock as she finally understands why Odysseus was so mad at her. Releasing a soft moan of despair, her eyes start watering, tears after tears pouring from them. "I-I..." she stutters, trying to form a sentence but no words come out from her mouth, like they've gotten stuck in her throat.

"You what, Annabelle!? Are you sorry for what you did? Are you sorry your damn naivety killed them!? Take a good look at him, Annabelle! Look at what you have done! This is all because of you!" Odysseus shouts and points at the black corpse, then at the burned APC which still smokes heavily, and it seems to snap something at the shaken girl.

"I-I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I-I didn't mean for this to happen! I didn't want this to happen!" Annabelle shrieks at the top of her lungs.

"Hey, what the fuck are you doing!?" Tyler shouts at Odysseus as he and Reiji get down from the tank, quickly running towards them. Lifting her foot from the redhead, Annabelle sits up and crawls a meter or two backwards as fast as she can. Pulling her knees close to her chest and hugging them, Annabelle puts her face in the space between her knees and chest, quietly crying to herself.

"Why did you do this to her!?" Tyler confronts Odysseus while Reiji kneels besides Annabelle to check on her.

"Hey, are you alright?" Reiji asks softly, but all he gets back as an answer is Annabelle mumbling "I'm sorry" again and again to herself and sniffing.

"Because her little stunt, Tyler, killed people," Odysseus says in an angry calm voice, frowning at her gunner.

"Even if that's the case, you've gone too far! What you did to her was unacceptable!" Tyler retorts, the anger bubbling inside him visible in his voice. Not bothering to answer, Odysseus shoves him to the side with her hand and walks towards Annabelle. Stopping in front of her, she glances at Reiji for a moment, before kneeling in front of the redhead.

"Annabelle, look at me."

Hearing Odysseus' voice, Annabelle unconsciously yelps in fright, her body stiffening and shaking violently, but making no effort to raise her head whatsoever.

"Annabelle," Odysseus says again in her frighteningly calm voice, which causes the redhead to start shaking even more, though she does raise her head to look at Odysseus. Odysseus remains silent for a moment, gazing at her friend's scared expression, like she is looking at some kind of predator who's ready to kill her. "Annabelle, listen closely. Next time you don't follow my orders and do whatever you want, I'll have you out of the team and sent back to Japan. Am I understood?" Annabelle nods shakily with quivering eyes, and Odysseus stands up. "Good. Now go back to the tank, we might need to move out. This goes for you two as well," she says quietly looking at her crew. While Reiji helps Annabelle to stand up and go back to the tank, Tyler approaches the blonde.

"After all the commotion you caused, you just expect us to do as you say? You've got a few questions to-"

"Now, Tyler. I wasn't asking you, I was ordering you. If you want answers, just ask me later." With a gaze that could erase you from the face of the earth instantly, Odysseus looks at her loader, being in no mood for answering questions. Tyler instantly falls silent, every hair on his body standing up.

"Fine," Tyler says, then goes back to the tank. Turning around, Odysseus simply looks at the ground, lowering her headset so that it hangs from her neck and furiously scratching her head with her right hand.

"Yeah, that's right Elpida, just go and bellow in her face like the retarded bitch you are," Odysseus mutters to herself in frustration, stopping her scratching and grabbing a lock of her blonde hair, then playing with it by wrapping and unwrapping it around her index finger. The gunfire coming from inside the hospital starts to lessen as the infantry keeps cleaning it from any enemy forces still inside it, and a few more gunshots later, they seize altogether. " _Sigh._ I guess Black was right, it seems I do love yelling at people when they screw up." Looking back at the hospital, she can now only see a white wall full of holes of various sizes, destroyed balconies, and mangled bodies and blood everywhere. "Well, it was either them, or us."

"Excuse me, are you Miss Papaioannou?"

Turning her head around to the one who called her, she finds a man dressed in a tanker's uniform approaching her, stopping around half a meter away from her.

"Who the fuck are you?" Odysseus says with an irritated tone, and the man looks at her for a few seconds, not expecting a not-so-nice greeting from such a young girl. "Are you going to answer me or not?"

" _Ahem._ I'm 1st Lieutenant Riley Scott, leader of Sigma platoon," the man introduces himself, but Odysseus hardly seems to care.

"So? Is there something you want from me? I want to stay alone for a little bit," Odysseus says to the man with no interest at all.

"If I remember correctly, Command ordered us to keep the damage to the hospital," he gestures at it,"to a minimum, so imagine my surprise when I see the whole south side full of holes made from a high caliber cannon and a 25mm autocannon."

"Ah, so that's what you wanted to tell me?" Odysseus asks with a raised eyebrow. "Well, if there are any civilian casualties, just file them as collateral and everything should be fine." Turning around, Odysseus starts walking towards her tank to see how Annabelle is doing, and try to salvage her horrendous attempt at reprimanding the redhead about what she did.

"Hey, I'm not done talking to you!" the man says loudly to the blonde. "Just because you are not from this country, or because you work as a mercenary for Blackout doesn't mean you can do as you like and endanger the lives of innocents." Stopping for a moment, Odysseus turns her head enough to look at the man from the corner of her left eye.

"Then you should have came earlier. If I hadn't ordered my gunner and the Bradley to use our main armaments, we'd probably be smoking wrecks with charred corpses inside, like this M113. Just count how many mutilated bodies there are in the parking lot just in front of the hospital and you'll understand what force the enemy had. Now, if you'd like to keep evading a bunch of rockets with a tank to save a bunch of sick people, that's your choice."

Seeing as the man has no answer, she turns around to walk away, but Riley quickly walks behind her and puts his hand on her shoulder to stop her.

"That doesn't mean you can simply disregard your orders and do-"

Before he can finish his sentence, Odysseus turns around and uppercuts him out of nowhere. While the punch isn't strong enough to push him off his feet, it packs enough strength to make him stagger back a few steps.

" **DON'T** touch me. Only my friends and Annabelle can do that," she seethe quietly, killing intent leaking all around her, though this aura of death that surrounds her quickly subsides as she goes away.

As Riley rubs his chin, slightly cringing from the sudden pain, a private quickly approaches him.

"Lieutenant!" he says, standing at attention in front of the man and saluting.

"What is it, Private?" Riley asks, looking at Odysseus's form with a displeasing expression.

"Uhm... The platoon commanders are gathering in the hospital's reception to decide what to do next, and asked me to inform you," the private informs Riley.

"The hospital has been cleared already?" Riley asks in surprise and the private nods.

"Yes. It seems most of the enemies retreated before we could cut them off, and the ones that remained were too outnumbered to put up any meaningful resistance."

"I see. Then let's get going." Walking together with the private, Riley makes his way to the south entrance of the hospital.

"By the way, sir, can I ask you a question?" the private asks, and Riley turns to look at him.

"What is it, Private?" Riley asks, but the private hesitates a little.

"That blonde girl, who is she?"

"Why, are you interested in her?" Riley releases a quite chuckle. "Don't bother with her, she isn't worth the trouble."

"No, it's not because I'm interested in her, sir. It's just that I saw her crying. Did she lose someone from her crew?"

Riley looks at the private with a questioning expression. That girl, crying? The one who minutes ago was pushing her driver's face to a charred corpse and yelling at her? Riley just snorts and shakes his head with a slight smirk.

"That's impossible, Private. Monsters like her don't have emotions."

* * *

 **A/N: No, the story hasn't been abandoned. It's just that university took a lot of my time in the form of assignments. Plus I started a new Kancolle fanfic. Anyway, I hope the wait of over two months was worth it.** **As always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**


	37. Chapter 37: The Battle of Whitehead pt2

**The Ether Conflict**

 **Chapter 37: The Battle of Whitehead part 2**

* * *

 **Relic Street, Whitehead, Arizona**

 **Delta Platoon redzevous point**

 **Current Objective: Recapture the City Hall**

 **Time till the attack: 25 minutes, Time: 4:35**

"Ouch," Miho cringes slightly as Hana sutures the wound in her shoulder, stitching it up little by little. While her wound flares in pain every time Hana pierces her skin with the needle and ties the thread, Miho endures it, the memory of the sniper bullet grazing her shoulder and the pain she felt at that moment making the stitching seem like someone is simply pinching her.

"Please be patient, Miho, I'm almost done," Hana says at her friend as she puts the last stitches on the wound, then procures a clean gauze patch and puts it over the stitched wound. "It should be okay now, though it'd be best to let someone from the infirmary take a look at it just to be sure."

"Thanks," Miho smiles at Hana as the latter puts the needle and thread, along with the antiseptic bottle and the unused cotton swabs, back in the first aid kit.

"Let me take it," Saori, who stands up half-out of her hatch says, and so Hana gives it to her to put it back in its place.

"Everything is alright with the tank, Miss Nishizumi!" Yukari salutes Miho from the ground, having checked the hull's Schürtzen plates for any damage, as well the tracks. "Should I do a shell count?"

"Yes please," Miho nods, putting her uniform's torn jacket and zipping it, then putting over it her vest which Saori insisted she wears instead of her since she is the one most likely to be exposed to enemy fire. Looking around, she spots a rather high amount of troops gathered in the street and the avenue that it connects to, ranging from regular and mechanized infantry, to towed anti-tank guns, a few AFVs and two sharpshooter squads. Yet, only two platoons of tanks were here, hers and Beta platoon.

"It seems this rallying point was not only for us," Miho wonders aloud, remembering when she and Delta-4 had arrived and had found only Delta leader and a few squads of regular infantry waiting here.

"Miho, we might need to refuel soon," Mako says as she rises from her hatch, climbing up at the hull and looking at Miho who sits on the front edge of the turret, next to the gun. "We have less than half a tank, so if the battle drags on a lot, we'll run dry."

"How many cans do we have?" she asks and Hana answers this time.

"We should have 3 cans of fuel still," she says, looking at the side side of the Schürtzen plates facing her, where three jerry cans full of fuel settle tied on them. It was a crude and dangerous method of transportation, but it allowed them to operate somewhat autonomously back in Blackout.

"They should be enough to fill 3/4 of the tank. Please tell Saori to help you with refilling the tank. I'd like to help too, but I don't think I'll be able to lift anything heavy for some time," she says with an apologetic expression and Mako nods.

"Don't worry about it," she says and dives inside the tank.

"It's nice to have a reprieve," Miho sighs and stretches her arms and back, though she immediately stops when she feels the stitches pulling on her flesh, causing her wound to flare up in pain momentarily. "Ouch. Though this wound could become a problem."

"Hey, Miho, captain's calling a meeting of all tank commanders!"

Looking down in front of the tank, Miho finds Ryan, known as Delta-4, looking at her somewhat impatiently, his arms crossed in front of his chest.

"Coming!" Miho says, pushing herself off the turret's edge and down on the hull's top, just as Saori and Mako pop out of their respective hatches.

"Miporin, where are you going?" Saori asks seeing her commander scaling down the tank's front.

"Delta leader called a meeting, probably to inform us about the attack plan," Miho informs Saori as she makes it to the ground, then turns around to face Ryan. "Is everything alright? You seem to be in a hurry," she notes, and Ryan nods quickly.

"The attack is about to begin; I'd say we have around 15 to 20 minutes, and the captain's not in the greatest mood."

Hearing this, Miho turns around to her crew. "Mako, after you fill up the tank with Saori, get in your positions and start the engine. Hana, get in position too, and tell Yukari after she's done with the shell count to fill the ammo rack closer to her."

"Hai!" the girls respond and do as they are told, so Miho turns back at Ryan.

"This way," Ryan says to Miho and starts walking, with the Anglerfish's commander matching his pace and walking next to him. As they keep walking towards the meeting point, Miho sees more and more soldiers jogging around to get in position or boarding the AFVs, as well as several vehicles revving up their engines.

"Did the order came suddenly? Everything was really calm a couple of minutes ago," she asks Ryan, who glances at her for a second, before looking forward again.

"Yeah. They sent the order to mobilize immediately five minutes ago, saying the attack will commence in like 20 minutes or so, and the captain's been furious over this. If we had attacked an hour ago like the original plan was, we wouldn't be in this mess."

"Has the enemy fortified the city hall that much?" Miho asks worried, at which Ryan simply looks at her and shrugs.

"I have no idea, but..." Looking around him, he leans next to Miho and whispers in her left ear. "From what I overheard from a bunch of scouts that were sent to assess the enemy's strength in the city hall and the surrounding plaza, it's like they have built a fort. The area is full of barbed wire, sandbags and machine-guns, fortified tanks, mortars and so on. Their numbers are considerable too, far more than the initial reports had estimated."

"Is that why they delayed the attack?" Miho questions him and Ryan nods.

"Most likely, yes. They probably delayed the attack to amass more troops. I guess they don't want to take any chances with the enemy counterattacking the moment we capture the town hall."

Going at the left side of the street, Miho spots an M60A3 painted exactly like Ryan's was, though this one seems to be covered with reactive armor to somewhat fend off against ATGMs and HEAT shells. In front of it, three men stand in a circle, quietly talking to each other.

"Captain," Ryan stops in front of the men and salutes the one that is directly in front of the M60, Miho doing the same.

"Finally found the way, Ryan?" the man snorts sarcastically, slightly readjusting his helmet as it has fallen a bit forward.

"With all due respect sir, I-" Ryan starts talking, but his captain interrupts him.

"I don't care for your excuses, Sergeant, now both of you come here to inform you about the plan," he barks and both Ryan and Miho come closer.

"Ok, listen up, all of you," he says at the Delta commanders and points at a map taped at the tank's hull. "The plan's simple. We, along with a few infantry squads and Beta platoon will spearhead the attack through the avenue, meaning we'll get most of the heat from the enemy defences. In the meantime, several of the mechanized squads will flank from the side avenues, now that the hospital in the North has been secured and the units in the South are closing in on the theater. Our objective is to capture and secure the city hall and the plaza, then pursue any retreating units till the outskirts of the city." Pointing at the map and dragging his finger over the east avenue, he stops at the outskirts of the city where the avenue ends and the I-10 starts. "We'll meet at this point of the avenue in five minutes; the pre-emptive strike should be starting any moment now." Looking up in the sky, he immediately notices the trails of artillery shells arcing through the sky, followed by the sounds of explosions and the tiny vibrations of the ground. "All of you are dismissed."

Ripping the map from the tank's hull and folding it, Delta Leader climbs up the tank and enters through the cupola, his M60's engine roaring to life. As if a signal, the Delta commanders scatter in the surroundings, everyone going to their tanks as fast as possible.

"So you know, my offer still stands if you feel like it," Ryan winks at Miho and goes away, getting lost in the sea of soldiers and military personnel that inhabit the small street she is currently in. Giving it no thought and pushing it at the side of her mind for now, Miho quickly makes her way to her tank, whose engine is already running, eager to join its bretherin on the frontlines. Reaching her tank and climbing on the turret's top, she enters through the cupola and sits on her seat, putting on her headset.

"Mako, take us at the end of the street and turn right on the avenue, then proceed around 50 meters and stop," Miho says through the intercoms, grabbing the city's map that is next to her seat and looking at the point where all Delta elements will meet.

"Hai," Mako responds and shifts gear, getting the tank moving at a slow speed till they clear the street, since it is still full of people running around, as well as vehicles moving to their own meeting points.

"Listen up, everyone, I'll inform you about the plan now," Miho says and everyone minus Mako turn to look at her. "Our objective is to capture and secure the city hall and the surrounding plaza, then pursue any retreating units till the outskirts of the city. Delta platoon will spearhead the attack along with Beta platoon and a few infantry squads, so we'll be drawing most of the enemy's fire on us. While we attack from the front, the rest of the mechanized infantry and vehicles will flank from the sides and take the enemy by surprise. If the attack is successful, the enemy will probably collapse pretty quickly and retreat."

"This should be pretty easy, since the enemy consists of a scouting force," Yukari comments, then remembers something. "Ah, the shell count Miss Nishizumi is 20 AP shells, 10 APCR shells and 11 HE shells."

"Load an APCR shell and depending on the enemy units we'll switch types accordingly," Miho orders and Yukari nods, grabbing the appropriate shell and throwing it into the breech. Miho really didn't like what Ryan had said to her about the enemy's defences and she hoped all this was just exaggerations from the scouts, and if indeed true, the artillery would wipe most of them and make their life a tad bid easier. Reaching the end of their street and making a right turn, Miho immediately spots Delta platoon's tanks in the distance, all of them waiting in line in the right side of the avenue's four-lane road. Stopping behind Ryan's tank, Mako puts the engine on idle, it's roaring slowly fading into a soft, purring sound.

"Everyone, close and secure your hatches," Miho orders and everyone complies, then she pushes herself through her cupola's hatch. "Saori, change to Delta's frequency."

"Copy that," Saori complies, changing frequencies on the radio. "Frequency changed, Miporin."

"Delta Leader, this is Delta-5, we have arrived," she speaks through her headset's microphone and after waiting for a moment, the other end statics briefly, then Delta leader's voice comes through.

 _"Acknowledged, Delta-5. The artillery will stop at any second now. The moment it does, we will commence our attack. Target any enemy you see, but give priority to any threats with AT capabilities."_

"Delta-5 acknowledges, Delta leader. Over and out," Miho says through the radio and the transmission gets terminated. Looking in the distance, the domes of fire, smoke, dust and debris lessen with each hit on the plaza, sign that the artillery barrage is coming to an end. "Everyone, let's make it out safe," she says through the intercoms as she cocks the cupola mounted machine-gun's firing handle back to load the first bullet of the belt into position, then points it at the sky for safety reasons.

"Hai!" everyone responds. As the barrage of shells finally ends, and the dust starts settling on the cratered ground, all WCC forces start moving towards the plaza's entry, the two tank platoons moving in a line.

 _"To all units, prepare for engagement."_

As soon as Delta leader says these words through the radio, the whistling of something flying through the air at high speeds reaches Miho's ears, followed by grinding metal and a mass of deformed steel flying in the air from the direction of one of the nearby tanks. A hectic firefight erupts, with bullets and tracers getting flung all over the place, lighting the avenue up like a christmas tree. Peeking slightly over her cupola's hatch to take a better look, Miho sees the remnants of the dug up positions in the entry of the plaza, consisting of a few pieces of barbed wire, half-destroyed sandbag positions, a couple machine-gun nests and a single tank.

"Is that an M4 Sherman?" she wonders aloud to herself, seeing the WW2 era tank fruitlessly bouncing round after round upon the lead tanks. Looking further inside the plaza, at least on the part that isn't obstructed by the buildings flanking the avenue, as well as looking at the city hall, she spots even more defences constructed, like mortar teams hiding behind sandbags, hull-down M60s, AT guns and so on. Looking further at the other side of the plaza, she spots a glint in the distance and her blood freezes instantly, a paralyzing chill coursing through her spine and numbing her legs.

 _Thump_

Falling back to her seat instantly, sweat starts forming on her face, her breathing becoming heavy and ragged.

"Miho, are you alright?" Hana asks in distress after hearing the loud thumping of Miho slumping in her seat, and everyone turns to look at their commander.

"Y-Yeah... I-I'm fine, no need to worry," she stutters slightly, her near-death experience from earlier playing in her head. Even her wound flares in pain momentarily, forcing her to put her hand on it.

 _Concentrate, Miho, this is no time to be afraid..._

Gulping audibly and mustering all her strength, Miho stands up and looks through her cupola's vision ports, trying to see if this glint she had spotted will appear again.

"..."

Waiting for a few seconds but seeing no glint in any building, a heavy sigh of relief leaves her chest, then she notices that the other tanks are already moving, the remnants of the set up defences laying in ruins, while the Sherman is smoking heavily with two, big holes adorning its front upper glacis and half of its hatches open.

"Mako, move forward," she orders and the tank jerks in motion, following the rest of Delta closely and slowly. As they reach the plaza's entry, the incoming fire intensify tenfold, with mortar shells falling everywhere around them.

 _"All Delta units, line up towards the right side of the plaza and engage the enemy; Beta platoon will advance from the left side. The mechanized units have encountered heavy resistance and are unable to push through the flanks, so don't count on help from them,"_ Delta leader orders through the radio and all Delta commanders line up their tanks next to each other, the infantry following them taking cover behind their tanks or the craters that mar the paved plaza.

"Hana, target the M60 at our 1 o'clock, the one nearest to the surrounding buildings. Yukari, get an APCR shell ready," Miho orders and the Panzer's turret starts rotating, zeroing in on the MBT.

 _Woosh_

 _Clang, Crunch_

An APDS shell passes next to the turret, ripping the Schürtzen plates on the turret's left side and flinging them in the air with no resistance, the long, metallic rod continuing unaffected and crashing through a nearby building's wall like a nail through a wall.

"Fire when ready," Miho says at Hana, who in return exhales slowly and makes some final adjustments. Like a line of musketeers, all Delta tanks shoot at the same time, managing to put out of commission an M60 tank, a machine-gun emplacement and the crew of one AT gun. Hana's shell strikes the M60 square in the turret ring right from the center of mass, and it creates enough shrapnel to fatally wound both the gunner and the commander.

"Target hit," she announces softly as she readjusts her aim, waiting for the next shell to be loaded.

"Up!" Yukari shouts as she throws another shell in the breech.

 _Boom_

Firing another shell at the M60 and hitting the turret ring on its left side, she nails the loader and puts him out of commission.

"Target eliminated," she announces as she spots the only survivor from the crew, the driver, opening his hatch and getting out, then jumping to the ground and running into safety.

"Start hitting the anti-tank guns. Yukari, load HE. Saori, use the machine-gun and try to suppress any infantry that you see. If they get too close to us we will be in trouble," Miho orders and everyone complies.

 _Ratatatatatata_

As Saori starts shooting at any infantry she can see in order to suppress them, and Hana is dealing with the AT guns, Miho scans the enemy forces, who despite their great losses show no signs of retreating or losing morale. "They are getting pushed back bit by bit, but I feel like something's off..." she mutters to herself, just before a mortar shell lands next to the Panzer IV and shakes it slightly.

 _"All units, advance till the enemy's second line of defense and support the infantry at capturing the city hall,"_ Delta leader orders through the radio and all tanks jerk in motion, pushing slowly forward through the wall of lead and mortar shells that is being thrown against them.

 _"Spotted AT infantry at my 11 o'clock, engaging now,"_ Delta-2 says and his coaxial roars into life, firing at a squad of five soldiers that has hidden within one of the shallow craters the ground has.

 _"Enemy reinforcements incoming from our flanks!"_

 _"What are the mechanized units doing!? We need them here now!"_

 _"Incoming barrage!"_

Explosions fill the plaza in front of the city hall, as mortar shell after mortar shell falls from the sky, causing craters in the ground and throwing pieces of bricks and dust, as well dirt, everywhere. All frequencies flare up with reports of enemy reinforcements and requests of support as the enemy pours into the plaza through the north and south avenues, the battle intensifying even more than before.

"Hana, a squad of enemy soldiers is trying to make it to the nearby houses! Drop them!" Miho orders as she spots a team of five enemy soldiers exiting from a nearby crater the previous artillery barrage had caused, trying to run at the safety of a nearby apartment building.

"On it!" she says and aims the cannon at the running men, firing an HE shell at them. One man manages to dive inside the apartment building just in the nick of time, three of them get obliterated into bloody chunks, and the last one gets blasted backwards, getting showered with a storm of shrapnel.

"Miho, I'll need to change barrel after this belt!" Saori says through the intercom, trying to suppress with the hull-mounted MG-34 some enemy soldiers that are hiding inside a store at the other end of the plaza.

"Roger that!" Miho responds, looking at all the potential targets through her cupola's vision ports. "Hana, targets at the right side of the town hall, near the windows on the first and second floor."

"Aiming," Hana says as she guides the cannon and aims its sight at the outermost window of the town hall's right side. "Ready to fire."

"Fire."

A second later, the room explodes, with concrete chunks, rubble, and mutilated bodies flying everywhere, before the room on the second floor crumbles down from its own weight.

 _"To all units fighting near the town hall, this is Command. Enemy forces are greater than expected. Commence tactical withdrawal to secondary defense line and remain put."_

 _"To all Delta elements, this is Delta Leader. Withdraw at the edge of the plaza and hold till all forces have successfully retreated to the secondary defense line."_

 _"Delta-2 acknowledges."_

 _"Delta-3 acknowledges."_

 _"Delta-4 acknowledges."_

"Delta-5 acknowledges," Miho says on the radio. "Mako, reverse till the edge of the plaza, but keep the speed low so Hana can aim!"

"Roger."

"So much for a small reconnaissance force," Yukari groans as she pushes another HE shell inside the cannon's breach.

"Changing barrels!" Saori announces as she fires the last bullets of her MG-34.

"Copy that! Hana, try to suppress the soldiers in front of us with the coaxial until Saori has changed the MG's barrel.

"Copy that," Hana responds, but then an explosion occurs at the tank's left. Looking through the cupola, Miho spots an M60A3 on fire, with pillars of flames spewing out of the cupola and the loader's hatch.

 _"We just lost Delta-3!"_

 _"We need to get out of here or we will get overrun!"_

"Miho, in front of us! Enemy soldier with an RPG, distance 50 meters!" Mako says with widened eyes as she spots the man kneeling in one knee and aiming the shoulder-mounted weapon straight at them.

Knowing she has no time to order Hana to deal with him, and since he is closer than 60 meters the APS won't register the RPG warhead, she stands up and opens her hatch, grabbing the cupola mounted MG-34. But as she aims it at the man and fires, the soldier does the same too, with the warhead landing directly on the NERA-covered frontal plate, between the driver's vision port and the hull's machine gun. A great fireball devours the front of the tank, as Miho immediately hears Mako screaming through the intercom.

 _Ratatatata_

"Mako!" Miho shouts after dealing with the enemy soldier and dives inside the tank as it jerks into an abrupt stop. "Mako, are you alright!?"

"Sh-She was hit! Something flew inside from her vision port and hit her in her forearm!" Saori almost yells in her panic, looking at Mako's bleeding forearm with a narrow cut in it and a metal piece stuck at the end of it.

 _"Delta-5, why did you stop?"_ Delta Leader asks through the radio, but Miho doesn't even register his voice.

"Hana, keep firing at any targets you see! Mako, can you still drive?" Miho asks and Mako grabs the track levers.

"Agh!"

But as she pulls them, the wound in her arm jolts in pain, causing her to let of the track levers immediately.

"N-No," she answers, sweat forming on her face and a few beads rolling down on her chin.

"We need to treat her wound, she is losing blood!" Saori says as she grabs the first aid kit box to treat the wound.

"Miho, the enemies are too many. They'll overwhelm us if we don't move now," Hana reports, and Miho falls silent for a second, considering all her options.

 _"Delta-5, respond! What's your status?"_

Snapping out of her thoughts, Miho immediately responds.

"Delta Leader, this is Delta-5. My driver has been injured and we need time to treat her injury. Until then we can't move." Getting halfway through her cupola and grabbing the MG34 in front of her, Miho starts raining death at any soldier that she can see, or anyone who is foolishly brave enough to run directly towards the tank.

 _"For the love of... Delta-4, support Delta-5 till they are able to move. The rest of you continue with your previous orders."_

 _"Delta-4 copies, moving to support now,"_ Ryan says and his tank stops moving backwards, instead moving towards Miho and stopping next to the Panzer IV.

 _"This isn't good, Miho. We'll get surrounded if you don't patch up your driver fast enough,"_ Ryan's voice bleeds through the radio, with more enemy reinforcements appearing and ever getting close to them; even the left side has started to crumble, threatening to cut off both Miho and him from retreating.

"We're doing as fast as we can!" Miho answers back, lowering herself slightly in the cupola to avoid a few bullets that wheeze by close to her head. But as she does that, she spots another glint in the distance, and this time she is sure she isn't just imagining things. "Sniper!" she shouts and dives inside, a bullet flying millimeters over the cupola moments after.

 _"Saw him, engaging now,"_ Ryan says and the M60's turret turns to point its cannon at a six-storey, red building at the other end of the plaza. After a few seconds of aiming and making some adjustments, an HE shell is fired at the top of the building, exploding on impact and showering the ground with dust and falling debris.

 _"To all units, this is Command. Retreat from the plaza immediately, an artillery barrage will be initiated to halt the enemy's advance and give us time to prepare our defences."_

 _"Miho, we need to get out of the plaza now!"_

 _"Delta-5, incoming barrage in 30 seconds! If you don't move now, you'll die!"_

Because of the looming danger of death hanging over their heads, all the voices on the radio practically yelling that they need to move, and the constant pinging sounds of bullets showering the tank, Miho is really nearing her limits, especially since one of her friends has been wounded.

"Saori, how much more!?" she shouts at her friend unconsciously, the stress of the situation finally catching up with her.

"Almost done!" she shouts back, tightening a bandage around Mako's cut. "This should do for now!"

"Mako, start reversing, now!"

Mako tries to pull the track levers, but her wound just starts burning with pain, the bandage over the cut getting a red hue from the blood that seeps out.

"Mmgh!"

Grunting from the pain, she unconsciously lets the levers, grabbing her right arm by the wrist and squeezing tightly in an attempt to fight the burning sensation that devours her forearm.

"Mako, let me drive! You must not aggravate your injury any further!" Saori says the moment she sees the bandage turn red, but Mako shakes her head.

"I can drive, just give me a moment," Mako says and grabs the levers with fiery determination, steeling herself for what's coming next. Stray shells start plunging here and there in the plaza, an indication that the bulk of the barrage isn't far away.

 _"Delta-4, retreat immediately from the plaza,"_ Delta Leader says on the radio, but Ryan almost immediately replies, as if he had already heard the question.

 _"Are you nuts!? They'll overrun Miho's tank if i retreat now!"_

 _"Lieutenant Ryan, I order you to immediately withdraw back to the secondary line_!" Delta Leader shouts harshly through the radio, his and Delta-2's tank already moving away from the plaza's edge further into the avenue. Ryan would have answered harshly too, if it wasn't for Miho's intervention.

"Ryan, get out of here now! We'll be right behind you!" Miho says through her headset's microphone and looks through her cupola, the artillery shells that fall through the sky multiplying by the second. Albeit like the tank itself is reluctant in leaving a comrade behind, it does turn around and starts moving away, a few shells landing near it and shaking it thoroughly. Even the enemy moves away and starts taking refuge inside the nearby buildings, though a few rockets do get launched at the Panzer IV, only to get intercepted by the APS and destroyed before they can reach their intended target. "Mako, we need to get out of here now!"

Clenching her hands tightly around the handles of the levers and pulling with all her might, Mako grimaces painfully as the tank jerks and moves in reverse at full speed, around 30km/h thanks to the new engine and transmission. And just in time as the main shelling phase arrives, completely blanketing the plaza with explosions and smoke.

"Just a bit more, cough, cough!" Miho shouts over the sounds of explosions, dirt, dust and chunks of broken bricks falling inside the crew compartment through the open cupola hatch. As shells land left and right, shaking the Panzer IV like there's no tomorrow, the tank exits the plaza and crashes to a nearby store, smashing through its front and completely thrashing the interior.

 _Crash_

With the tank falling on one of the building's support pillars and coming to an abrupt stop, Miho bangs her head on the turret's back, knocking her headset off her head.

"Ouch," she groans, rubbing the back of her head with a painful expression. "Is everyone alright?" she asks her friends, seeing them too rubbing some part of their body.

"I'm fine, Miss Nishizumi," Yukari says first, rubbing her shoulder's side. Finding Miho's headset in front of her, she leans forward and grabs them, before giving it back at her commander. "Your headset, Miss Nishizumi."

"Im fine too, Miho," Hana says as she rubs the back of her head and back.

"We are fine down here too, Miporin!" Saori says last and Mako nods, although the pain her wound is causing is clearly shown in her slightly cringy expression.

Closing her cupola's hatch, Miho turns towards Mako. "Mako, take us back to the secondary defense line as fast as possible. There is a chance the moment the barrage ends, the enemy might try to attack us."

"Roger," she responds. "Uhm... we might have a problem," she says in a hesitant voice and everyone turns to look at her. "My vision port is busted. The glass is so cracked I can't see anything outside."

"Huh? Oh yeah, each vision port has glass blocks to protect you from shrapnel and bullets," Saori says aloud to herself, but then a question surfaces on her mind. "Then how did you get hit by shrapnel, Mako?"

Everyone looks at each other cluelessly, having no answer or logical explanation for this.

"These glass blocks are made in layers with reinforced sheets of plastic in between. You'd need a high-caliber sniper rifle to go through it," Yukari says to the others and a grim realization dawns on them.

"But if that were the case, then Mako..." Leaving it at that, Miho quickly shakes her head to refocus. "It doesn't matter, we'll look at it later. Mako, I'll guide you. Saori, contact Delta Leader and tell him we are fine and are coming back."

"Ok," Saori responds as Miho starts guiding Mako out of the building and into the avenue, the barrage still going but with less intensity than before. "Delta Leader, this is Delta-5, do you copy?"

Waiting for a few seconds, Saori hears nothing so she repeats herself.

"Delta Leader, this is Delta-5, do you copy?"

Waiting a bit more this time but still not getting a response, she turns around to look at Miho. "Miporin, there's no response from Delta Leader."

"Try to contact Command and see if something happened at the defense line."

While Saori tries to change frequency, Miho looks through her cupola forward, noting the presence of a few sandbag positions along with a few soldiers behind them furiously working to set up defences on the wide road of the avenue, setting up machine-gun and mortar emplacements, while a single tank is already set a few meters behind the sandbags and looking towards them. "Everyone, unlock your hatches;We've reached the secondary defense line. Mako, slow down a little and go stop at the edge of the road, behind the tank you see on your right."

"Copy that," Mako says and unlocks her hatch, opening it and lifting her head slightly outside the tank so she can see what's going on. The others do so, unlocking their hatches, and Miho raises herself through the cupola so that the soldiers won't mistake them for enemies.

"Miporin, I can't reach Command either. Do you think our radio might be damaged?" Saori reports through the intercomms as she opens her hatch to let some cool air enter the crew compartment, the heat of the summer finally getting unbearable with their black uniforms.

"No, it's just that our antenna is missing," Miho answers a few seconds later, which takes Saori by surprise.

"Huh!? What do you mean it's missing?"

"It isn't exactly missing, more like it's broken. Probably it got hit by something during the firefight in the plaza."

As the Panzer passes the sandbags and the tank, an M60A3 from the Beta platoon, and stops behind it, Miho dives inside for a moment.

"Hana, Saori, help Mako out of the tank and go find a medic to look at her wound. Yukari, look around the tank for any significant damage on it, then replenish the ammorack closest to you. I'll go and look for Delta Leader and the rest to notify them we don't have communications."

Exiting the tank and jumping down on the ground, she starts looking around for any members of Delta platoon or their tanks.

"Though... How I'm I supposed to find them?" she mutters to herself, everywhere she looks spotting a mass of soldiers going back and forth hurriedly.

"Hey, you! Are you part of Delta platoon?"

Hearing a voice from behind, she turns around to find a man calling at her from the M60's cupola they just had passed.

"Huh? Eh, yes I am," Miho responds back. "Do you know perhaps where the rest of the platoon is?"

"Yeah, one of its members, I think his name was Ryan? Not really sure, but he said to tell you they have gathered a few streets further inside the avenue," the man explains and Miho bows a little in gratitude.

"Thank you very much."

"Don't mention it," the man waves away the gratitude with his hand, then he spots Saori and Hana helping Mako down the tank. "Is that girl okay?" he asks and Miho turns to look at them.

"Oh, my driver got wounded during the battle. Somehow a piece of shrapnel flew inside the crew compartment and cut her in her forearm," she answers back.

"There should be a triage station set up a block or two further down the avenue. If I remember correctly, it should be at the left side near one of the intersections."

"Thank you very much!" Miho bows once again, then quickly goes towards her friends. "Girls, there should be a triage station one or two blocks down the avenue, near the left side of one of the intersections!"

"Are you sure?" Saori asks as they wait for Miho to catch up with them.

"Yes. One of the crew members from the tank we just passed told me about it. He also said that the rest of the Delta members are further down the avenue," Miho nods as the girls start going further down the avenue in search of the triage station and the Delta members.

"Mako, does your injury hurt?" Saori asks the black-haired girl, seeing discomfort painted on her face.

"No," Mako shakes her head. "It's only a little sting I feel."

"That's good. It means the injury might not be that deep, or that there is no damage to the muscle or bone," Miho says and Mako nods.

"So what happens now? Do we wait for the enemies to attack us, or are we going to attack them again?" Saori asks, and Miho adopts a thoughtful expression for a few moments.

"Hmm, I really don't know. Since the enemy outnumbers us and our attack failed, we'll probably be ordered to wait until the forces on the flanks complete their encirclement, then be ordered to wipe out any enemies inside the city."

"This is obviously not a force that could go unnoticed, so one has to wonder how the people in command thought that the enemy had only a small reconnaissance force..." Hana wonders aloud, and everyone falls silent. Indeed, to miss such a large military force, your scouts were either really bad, or something else was at play here.

"Maybe they were fed false information?" Mako suggests, and Miho immediately understands what she means.

"You think there are spies within the military?" she asks and Mako nods.

"It's one explanation. It could certainly explain how Command got reports for a small reconnaissance force when in reality is just a large part of the main force or even the whole enemy force. Or the scouts could have been inexperienced and made mistakes when noting the enemy force, or even missed part of it."

"Whichever the case, though, it matters little now. Let's hope the enemy gets cut off and is forced to retreat, or we'll have one hell of a fight on our hands."

"Ow, my stomach hurts," Saori complains and grabs her abdomen, cringing slightly at the discomfort she is feeling. "I guess the stress from before didn't go away," she sighs, their narrow escape from the artillery barrage replaying on her head.

"You mean from the morning?" Miho asks and Saori turns to look at her.

"From the morning?" Saori asks unsure what Miho means, and Hana and Mako turn to look at her as well.

"When I saw you in the morning your face was flustered, so I thought you were feeling unwell," Miho explains and Saori just stares at her confused for a few seconds, before understanding at which instance she is referring to.

Turning around to obstruct the view of her rapidly reddening cheeks, she waves her hand dismissively in front of her, though the girls can't see her face.

"Oh, that, you don't need to worry, everything is fine!" she laughs a little awkwardly, still looking away from the girls. "I meant the stress from the artillery barrage. It's not every day we narrowly escape through a rain of shells."

"Are you sure you are alright? If you want, you can go back to the tank and rest a little," Miho offers, but Saori shakes her head, finally turning around after her cheeks regain their normal color, albeit a pink hue remains on them.

"I'll be fine, Miporin. I'm sure it'll pass in a couple of minutes or so," she says, then points at the intersection a few meters away from them. "I think I see the triage station."

Getting a bit closer, the girls spot a couple of tents erected at the intersected road perpendicular to theirs, with a sign above each reading "Triage Station". People go in an out, some times carrying medical supplies, others carrying dead and wounded soldiers.

"Get Mako's wound treated. In the meantime, I'll search for Delta Leader and the rest. I'll meet you back at the tank, though don't take too long; we don't know if and when the enemy will attack," Miho says and the girls nod.

Leaving them and proceeding further down the avenue, Miho starts looking around for any signs of the Delta members or their tanks. But however much she looks and looks, the only thing she sees are WCC infantry and support personnel.

 _Maybe I didn't notice them and passed them?_ she thinks, having walked a fair amount of distance. _Maybe I did. The guy from Beta platoon said they were a few streets further down the avenue after all._

But as Miho turns around, she overhears by chance a rather interesting conversation between two soldiers.

"No way I'm going out there dude! I'm telling you I saw her! She was in that red building at the other end of the plaza, sniping people like she was hunting ducks!"

Hearing about a sniper in a red building immediately catches her attention, remembering that the glint of a sniper scope she had seen was at a red building across the plaza too. Turning to discreetly look at the two men who sit at the side of the avenue on the pavement, she keeps her distance so she won't seem suspicious, but keeps listening intently.

"Come on, Josh, you are probably just overreacting. She could just be a simple female sniper; with how little military personnel all factions have after the 1st Factions War, it wouldn't be odd if they have drafted women in the army. Heck, even we have some fighting here in the city," the man sitting nearest to Miho says in an attempt to calm the man next to him, but it seems it has the opposite effect.

"I'm telling you John, I saw it clearly. It was her. It was Deathclaw! Even Danny saw her, just before she put a bullet in his skull. For fuck's sake, the bullet went through his scope! Do you even know what kind of skills you need to pull off something like that!?" he shouts in frustration and anger, grabbing the sides of his head and looking on the ground. "I-I'm telling you man, this woman...she is not human. Those soulless, cold eyes staring at you like a predator looking at its prey, her emotionless expression that's devoid of any feelings... No regret or remorse, nothing! It was so terrifying, Josh, it was like I was looking Death itself straight in the eyes. If it wasn't for a guy next to me bumping on me and pushing me down on the ground out of nowhere, I'd have a bullet in my head too..."

The scared man starts shaking quite badly, so the man next to him pats his back reassuringly to calm him.

"Don't worry so much about it. At the end of the day you survived and that's what matters. And if what you are saying is true, then you'll become popular with the ladies real quick! It's not everyday that someone escapes the clutches of Deathclaw!" the man laughs and the other man just looks at him in disapprovement. Having heard what she wanted, Miho turns around to go back in searching for any of the Delta members, only to find a familiar face a few steps away from her.

"Ah, Ryan!" she exclaims at the young tank commander, who in turn snaps his gaze at her the moment he hears her voice.

"Miho?" Ryan says in disbelief, then quickly runs to her and hugs her. "Thank God, you are alive! We thought you didn't make it out of the barrage in time!"

"Y-Yeah, it was a really close call," she smiles awkwardly, not expecting the man to actually go as far as to hug her.

"Then why didn't you contact us? Oh man, the captain is going to be so pissed off..." he sighs and Miho feels a chilly sensation creeping on her spine.

"W-Well, our radio antenna got cut somehow, so we can't contact anyone," Miho explains and Ryan nods.

"I see. Well, I have a few friends in the engineers squad that has been attached to us, I'll see if they can make up something to fix it temporarily."

"I doubt they'll be carrying spare antennas though..."

"Donr worry about it. They can be rather crafty when push comes to shove," Ryan grins at Miho, before remembering something. "Oh, I totally forgot. The captain said that the enemy is probably going to attack us within the hour in an attempt to push through us and attack our headquarters. Since our flanking units are threatening to cut off all the units in the city and encircle them, the enemy may try to attack HQ to throw us into confusion."

"Wouldnt it be easier to cut off our units on the flanks since they control the city hall?" Miho asks and Ryan shakes his head.

"No, since our mechanized units are keeping the flanks secure, at least for now... This whole situation really reminds me of Falaise pocket in WW2, though instead of trying to retreat, the enemy is trying to attack us. Let's hope the line holds and we all make it out alive."

"Hai. Ah, can I ask you a question?" Miho asks and Ryan nods.

"Sure."

"Do you know about an enemy sniper called Deathclaw?"

Ryan's gaze immediately hardens and his body stiffens.

"Deathclaw is an enemy female sniper that made a name for herself during the 1st Factions War. Before the earthquakes she was a member of Delta Force, an elite spec ops unit within the U.S. military. Because of this, her skills are unmatched when it comes to marksmanship, not to mention she is untouchable in close quarters combat. She has been with the IST since the U.S. got divided into independent states, and except for her appearance, we know nothing else about her."

Miho just stares at the man in disbelief, having a hard time accepting such a description of a human; it's almost as if he is describing someone trained to be a living weapon... Now that she thinks about it, it doesn't seem that far fetched.

"Where did you hear this name?" Ryan asks curiously, bringing Miho back to reality from her thoughts.

"I overheard a conversation between two soldiers about a sniper in a red building across the plaza, and her name came up."

"If that's the case, then it explains a lot of things. I need to inform Captain about you and see if my engineer buddies can do something about your communications, so I'll get going. Talk to you lhead," Ryan waves at her and goes away. Having nothing left to do, Miho starts walking back to the tank, noticing along the way that the avenue has somewhat emptied of military personnel, probably having been posted to guard the side streets as well. Reaching her tank, she spots the girls standing at its side next to it talking about something. Though as she gets closer, she sees Saori having a miffed expression, like she is complaining about something.

"Girls, is something the problem?" Miho asks as she reaches them, and Saori turns around like a whip to look at her.

"You won't believe the nerve the guys in the triage station had, Miporin!" she grumbles, though Hana interjects to add her own opinion on their conversation.

"In their defense, they were very busy treating their own wounded, and their supplies were not enough even for them."

"Even then, they were rude! One guy we asked to treat her wound just said he had no time to waste on mercenaries, and when we asked another medic for a suture kit, he said the supplies were for the army, not freelance contractors that just fight for money! It's not like we had a saying in all this..." she frowns and crosses her arms over her chest.

" Is your wound still untreated?" Miho asks Mako, who in response shakes her head and raises her arm for Miho to see.

"Thankfully there were enough supplies left in our first aid kit for Hana to stitch the cut, but it was its last use. If any of us get a wound that needs stitching, we'll be in trouble."

"Still, I'd prefer if someone with medical experience took a look on the wound, since I don't know if I have closed it properly. Same goes with your own wound, Miho," Hana expresses her concern.

"We'll do that when we get back at base. Yukari, did you find any major damage on the tank?"

"No, Miss Nishizumi. The only damage I could find are the destroyed Schürtzen plates on the left side of the turret, the NERA blocks which the RPG warhead impacted, and Mako's vision port being cracked," she says and Miho nods.

"Good. Return to your positions, word is the enemy will attack us in an attempt to break through and attack our base directly. We must not allow for this to happen, or the WCC forces will fall into disarray and the battle for Whitehead will be our loss."

"Hai!" the girls respond and quickly climb the tank, entering through their respective hatches. Miho on the other hand goes at the front of the tank and climbs the front upper glacis, taking a better look at the cracked glass block.

"Something on your mind, Miporin?" Saori asks from her position, her head poking out of her opened hatch.

"I'm just wondering what really flew inside the cabin and hit Mako. If it was really a bullet, it'd have at least left an entry mark, but all I can see are cracks, like something blunt hit it," she thinks aloud. Pressing her fingertips against the rugged surface of the cracks, a jolt of warmth flows within her hand, and Miho instinctively draws it back.

 _Was that... No, it couldn't be..._ she thinks on her mind, standing up to look at Mako who is quietly sitting on her seat. "Mako, can you see if anything is obstructing the view on the glass block?" she asks and Mako leans closer on the vision port, indeed spotting something with a weird shape encased within the glass.

"I can see something inside the glass block, but I can't understand what it is," she answers and Miho falls silent in thought, then turns to Saori.

"Saori, do you have the shrapnel that hit Mako?"

"I put it somewhere here, give me a second to find it." Diving inside the tank, Saori's head pops out after a few moments, handing Miho the bloody shard. Taking it, Miho immediately feels a strange warmth entering her hand, but this time it feels a lot stronger than with the cracks in the glass block.

"Hmm, just as I suspected," Miho nods to herself, then hands the shrapnel piece back to Saori.

"What is it?" By now both Hana and Yukari watch Miho from their own hatches, waiting for her answer, completely missing the WCC soldiers that keep coming on the front of the defense line and taking cover behind the sandbag positions or manning the machine-guns that have been set there.

"Whatever hit Mako's vision port, it was coated in Ether."

Each girl displays her shock and surprise in various degrees, yet none says anything for a few seconds, only the sound of people moving around and their equipment clanging filling the air.

"Oh man, does that mean that someone who can use Ether is after us!?" Yukari says with a panicky voice, a concerned expression forming on her face.

"Then that could mean the enemy has an Ether user," Hana says with a thoughtful expression. "Should we report this to Blackout?"

"It's also possible that the Institute has already found us somehow and wishes to eliminate us," Mako proposes with a few beads of sweat already forming on her forehead.

"What if the enemy has developed an experimental weapon that uses Ether? If I remember correctly, Anzu had said that a lot of countries were trying to weaponize it before the earthquakes, right? It wouldn't be that far-fetched to think they'd have at least a working prototype of some kind," Saori speculates.

While each opinion sounds logical, Miho feels none of them is right.

"I don't think that's the case here," she shakes her head, and the others turn to look at her. "First of all, if the Institute had really found out about us, they wouldn't beat around the bush with killing us; they'd probably send a sizable force just to make sure we'd really die. Second, while it's true that the countries probably have developed their own Ether programs and weapons, it is highly unlikely that they'd use it from the get go; most likely they'd keep it as their trump card or a last resort if things go awry somewhere. And third, if it was really an Ether user, I'd have sensed them the moment they'd use their power."

"Then what could it have been?" Saori asks, and Miho simply shakes her head.

"We don't have enough information to draw a definite conclusion yet, but if I had to choose something, your suggestion would be the most logical."

"Hey, what are you doing out here!? The enemy has already started their attack!"

Hearing someone yelling, the girls turn to find two soldiers with rather heavy backpacks running towards them, both holding a large rod of flexible metal.

"Girls, back to your positions!" Miho immediately orders and the girls do so. "The attack has already begun? And who are you?"

"Ryan sent us to repair a radio antenna! Told us to find a Blackout mercenary going by the name Miho Nishizumi," one of them says out of breath, letting the replacement antenna to fall on the ground. The other man does so too, finding its weight too much to lift it all alone. Gunfire and explosions echo on all the streets surrounding the avenue, signaling the attack has indeed started.

"I'm her! The antenna's base is on the left back side of the hull! Wait for us to get in position, then you can start the repairs!"

 _Vrrrt-Vroomvroomvroomvrooom_

As the Panzer's engine turns on, and Miho enters the tank through her cupola, the two men grab the spare antenna and move back to let the Panzer turn.

"Hey, have you been assigned anywhere?" shouts the M60's commander to Miho, who turns to look at him.

"No!"

"Then take position at the other sandbag position, just behind the machine-gun emplacement!"

"Copy that! Mako, start turning the tank. When I say..."

As Miho guides the Panzer IV at the indicated position and the two engineers lift the spare antenna to follow it, smoke shells start falling around 100 meters away from the defense line, followed by actual artillery shells falling amongst them.

"Mako, stop the tank!" Miho orders as the first shells start plunging in the ground, throwing debris and people everywhere. The two engineers instantly forfeit the antenna and run to the nearest building for cover, like many other soldiers do, though a few remain in their positions, lying behind cover and praying they won't get blown to bits by a shell. A stray shell actually hits one of the nearby buildings, raining down on the street even more rubble and crushing a few unfortunate men. After the artillery salvo ends, the sounds of running engines reverberate through the white smokescreen that has been set up, the sounds of battle growing even louder all around them.

"Everyone get ready! The enemy is almost on us!"

"Yukari, what shell do we have loaded in the breech?" Miho asks in a quiet voice, looking through her cupola at the slowly dissipating smokescreen. More smoke shells plunge from the sky, this time creating a smokescreen at 50 meters away from them.

"If I remember correctly, it's an HE shell," she responds, in her hands holding an orange-tipped shell.

"Switch to APCR. And Hana, aim at the middle of the road, but hold fire until I say otherwise. The enemy will be surely advancing with armor to support their infantry, so we need to knock them out first," she orders and the girls comply, Yukari switching the orange-tipped shell she holds with a black-tipped one, while Hana rotates the turret slightly for the cannon to aim at the center of the avenue. Getting out of her cupola to look at the engine deck of her tank, she finds the two engineers already working on replacing the missing radio antenna.

"The enemies will be attacking us any moment now, will you be okay?" she asks in concern, and the men look at her.

"Ain't you cute being concerned for us and all?" one of the men chuckles at her, waving his hand in front of him and turning back to continue the repairs. "We'll be fine, so don't worry about us."

"This isn't the first time we are fixing something under heavy fire, so like Daniel said, we'll be fine. And if things get too heated, we'll take cover behind your tank and continue when it'll be safer."

"Just be careful," Miho nods at them and dives inside, though her cheeks somewhat flush when she hears the guys whisper while she closes her hatch.

"Dude, Ryan was right, she is both cute and hot!"

"Yeah, too bad Ryan beat us to-"

Closing her hatch, Miho takes a moment to clear her mind and focus on the current situation. As the sound of running engines and clanging tracks draws closer and closer, adrenaline starts seeping in Miho's circulation bit by bit, cold sweat forming all over her body. But, the moment the sound reaches at the smokescreen's border and the faint silhouette of a cannon barrel peeks out, all hell breaks loose.

"Open fire!"

Every single soldier on the defense line opens fire at the smokescreen, while the tanks and AT guns fire at the emerging Sheridan, completely shredding it.

"Hana, hostile infantry coming through the smokescreen, drop them! Saori, change the APS' radius to 20 meters, but keep the missile interception to three!" Miho orders. As Hana turns the turret and fires her coaxial machine-gun at a bunch of soldiers that have clustered together, Saori turns to a small touchscreen that hungs to her right, accessing the APS and changing its settings.

"Miporin, it'll take 2 minutes for the system to reset," Saori says through the intercoms as she confirms the new settings, before the screen blackens and lines of code start scrolling from its bottom to the top.

"Copy that! Hana, enemy M60 at your 11 o'clock, turning its turret to us!"

"Aiming."

Like she had done back at the plaza, Hana aims at the M60's turret ring and fires, successfully penetrating and killing the gunner, before the friendly M60 fires at it and knocks out the rest of the crew. Another M60 appears out of the smokescreen, but this one falls prey to the rockets of the AT infantry, coming to a halt only a few seconds after its appearance, fire and smoke coming from its insides.

"Miho, the smoke is dissipating," Hana notes as she sees the thick, white smoke grow thinner and thinner by the second, revealing more and more of the enemy's forces.

"Th-This... How are we supposed to hold out against so many enemies!?" Saori shouts in disbelief, seeing the sheer amount of enemy forces that occupy the avenue, consisting of at least three platoons of tanks, a dozen AFVs and their infantry, as well as SPGs.

"... This ain't going to end well for us," Miho sweat drops, her eyes widening when she sees the SPGs raising their cannons to fire. Four shots are fired from them, but they are enough to throw the whole defense line in chaos. Explosions fill the space around the Panzer IV, throwing dust and asphalt chunks everywhere, as well human limbs and people.

"Aaaah!" Saori yelps in shock as the soldier who was manning the machine-gun emplacement in front of them gets blown back on top of the tank along with a few sandbags, crashing on top of the MG's barrel and forcing it down with his weight.

"Saori, are you okay!?" Miho asks quickly, fearing whatever had happened with Mako had happened now too.

"I-I'm fine, I just got surprised, that's all," she stutters, trying to catch her breath from the sudden shock. Trying to use the machine-gun as a lever to lift the dead body and push it off of it, Saori puts all her might on the gun.

"Hhhhngg!"

But as much power as she mau put, the body doesn't budge an inch.

"Miho, I can't use the hull machine-gun, a dead body is pinning it down! I tried to move it, but it's too heavy for me!"

"Then leave it at that for now, we can't have you go outside to move it!" she responds, shifting her gaze at the enemy force that keeps moving forward despite their heavy losses. Another salvo hits them, this time landing on the buildings next to them and on the friendly M60.

 _Dammit, we just lost our M60! We definitely can't hold out with what forces we have at our disposal,_ she curses in her mind, the only effective thing that keeps the enemy from really rushing them being the AT guns that have been set up a fair distance away from them. _We need reinforcements ASAP, but I can't contact anyone! What should I do now?_

 _"To all Delta elements, this is Delta Leader, what's your status?"_

 _"This is Delta-2, enemy numbers greater than expected but we are still holding."_

 _"This is Delta-4. The enemy is slowly pushing us back, but I expect we'll reach a stalemate soon enough; they can't keep throwing themselves at us forever."_

Hearing a radio transmission, Miho turns instinctively to look back through her cupola's vision ports, finding a gloved hand rising from behind the Schürtzen plates and forming a thumbs up, before lowering itself behind the safety of the metal plates.

"Saori, change frequency to Command and ask for the current situation!" she orders, and Saori nods, changing channels from the one for Delta platoon to the one for speaking to Command. "Command, this is Delta-5, I need a situation report, over."

As Saori talks with Command about the current situation, Miho looks at the ever increasing enemy numbers, debating whether to hold her ground or ask for reinforcements and retreat a city block to avoid getting overwhelmed.

"Miporin, Command says the flanking forces have successfully cut off enemy forces from accessing the I-10 and part of them is pursuing the fleeing enemy forces. It is expected they'll start pressuring us even more in an attempt to break the encirclement!" Saori reports, just as Yukari loads the last of the APCR shells in the gun breech.

"Miss Nishizumi, we're out of APCR!"

"Use the AP shells. Hana, see if you can damage the tanks, else target the AFVs. Saori, ask Command permission to withdraw a city block due to heavy enemy presence and request reinforcements on our position ASAP!"

 _Beep beep beep_

As the missile warning goes off, the APS manages to intercept an ATGM and two unguided rockets, though a fourth one sneaks through between the interval the system needs to be able to acquire new targets and strikes the Schürtzen plates at the turret's right side, blowing them out of their place, the explosion shaking the tank. But despite the overwhelming enemy numbers, the soldiers stubbornly keep their ground, either firing from the nearby buildings or taking cover behind the remnants of the set up defences.

"Negative on withdrawing or reinforcements! They say to hold our ground at all costs, friendly air support arriving in ten minutes!" Saori says and Miho's blood freezes, time slowing down for a moment. Last time she heard those words, a lot of good people died, just because she chose to believe them instead of her instinct. Their deaths still weighed heavily on her shoulders and she isn't going to add more. She isn't going to make the same mistake again.

"Saori, do you have the frequency used by all friendly units?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Change to it. We are falling back to the intersection a city block behind," Miho orders and without saying anything, Saori changes to the emergency frequency used by all units in case of something unexpected.

"To all units defending the avenue, this is Delta-5. I'll be assuming temporary command till the enemy attack is over."

 _"Delta-5, what's the meaning of this? You don't have the jurisdiction to assume field command,"_ comes the response from Command, but Miho simply ignores it.

"Initiate a tactical withdraw at the previous intersection and stop after it. Anti-tank gun team, I want you to go and set up at either sides of the intersection to set up a killzone for any vehicle that tries to pass it. Everyone, do not retreat quickly, or the enemy might try to rush us with their numbers."

 _"To all units, belay these orders. Delta-5 has no jurisdiction to assume field command. Your orders are to hold the defensive line until air support arrives."_

"If you want to die like fools, then that's your choice. But I've seen enough comrades die in vain and I don't intend to add on this number any more lives," Miho says and cuts the transmission, turning to Mako and ordering her to start reversing slowly.

The girls knew what it meant to lose comrades and good friends in a fight, people that mere minutes or hours ago you were talking to and laughing with. And while after one and a half years in Blackout they had somewhat gotten used to it, it still affected them. Whether it was a good friend or a simple stranger, the death of a fellow soldier always affected you, not in the midst of the battle, but after it. Emotions are things that humans cannot ignore or contain for long, and once released can wreak havoc on one's mind. While Miho didn't believe anyone would follow her, she really hoped just for this once luck would smile on her and these trained soldiers would rather hear a mercenary that just appeared one day out of nowhere rather their superiors, but that's just wishful thinking. These people probably had families to go back to, friends, children, lovers, relatives waiting for them, praying for their safety. Why let them die over a false decision if she can save them? Why must they pay for the mistakes of others?

 _"This is the Lieutenant Morrison, leader of 3rd Infantry Platoon, currently defending the avenue from the advancing enemy forces. We acknowledge your orders, and we'll initiate a tactical withdrawal towards the previous intersection."_

 _"This is Lieutenant Miller, leader of the 6th Infantry Platoon. We acknowledge your orders, Delta-5, and are retreating towards the intersection."_

 _"To all units in the avenue, remain in your positions! If you don't follow these orders, you'll be-!"_

"Oops, seems we lost the transmission with Command," Saori says, terminating the transmission manually.

As both the Panzer IV and the infantry retreat bit by bit in order to keep the enemy at bay and not allow them to overwhelm them, fate decides to give her own cruel twist in this fight, as a few mortar rounds emmiting a bright, white light arc above them.

"Huh, what are these?" Miho wonders aloud, looking at the white lights confused. "Are these flares?"

But as the mortar rounds reach directly above her and the retreating platoons, they explode, dousing everything beneath them in white phosphorus. Miho's eyes widen in shock as the whole part of the avenue where she and the infantry are catch fire, like a part of Hell has somehow found its way on Earth.

"Everyone seal your hatches! Mako, stop the tank immediately!" Miho says in a hurry, sealing her own hatch as fast as she can.

"What happened Miss Nishizumi?" Yukari asks as she seals her hatch, then grabs an AP shell to have ready to load on the gun breech.

"The enemy used white phosphorus!" she answers, looking through her cupola at the white cloud of death, as well the burning people that lay on the asphalt dead or are quickly approaching death's door. The tank starts shaking as the enemy Bradleys start showering it with autocannon rounds, digging through the NERA blocks and bouncing off of the frontal hull plate.

"W-What? Why would they use something so horrible?" she asks back in shock.

"I-Is it that bad?" Saori asks, admittedly not knowing what white phosphorus is.

 _Boom!_

A pair of ATGMs get intercepted by the APS, but a warning starts flashing on the touchscreen next to Saori.

"Miporin, the APS has only four charges left!" she reports, just as another rocket gets intercepted by it. "Make it three!"

Looking at the avenue behind them and seeing the white phosphorus cloud has thinned enough so that the girls won't get hurt even if it somehow enters inside the crew compartment, a chill runs through her spine seeing all the burned bodies of the soldiers, some still alive and shouting for help. But in the distance, near the intersection, she can see a fair amount of soldiers who managed to make it out almost unscathed, or that where fast enough to take cover inside the buildings.

"White phosphorus is an incendiary weapon mainly, though it is used in smoke grenades as well. It can inflict third degree burns, and can ignite a variety of things the moment it comes into contact with it. And even if you survive such burns, because your body will absorb the phosphorus, it can lead to heart or liver failure," Yukari answers Saori's question, who pales more and more with each word she hears.

"Th-This sounds really horrible..."

"Mako, take us at the intersection as fast as possible! You are parallel to the pavement, so don't stop until I say so!"

Putting the gear to reverse, the Panzer IV starts reversing at high speeds, with the enemy armor picks up speed too, pushing forward like a torrent of steel.

"To 3rd and 6th infantry platoons, what's your status?" she asks through the radio, their tank shaking from the shells of the SPGs that land close to it, as well as from the few burned bodies that they have to pass over.

 _"This is Lieutenant Miller, heavy casualties from the phosphorus strike. We also have a situation, the triage station is set up at the left of the intersection, so we'll be occupying the buildings before it."_

 _"This is Platoon Sergeant Miles, Lieutenant Morrison has been heavily wounded and is unconscious. Half of the 3rd Platoon is KIA, and most survivors are wounded. We are in no condition to fight, we need to retreat immediately!"_

Miho widens her eyes in disbelief, how could she forget the triage center? Was this the reason Command was adamant about not retreating? _This means we absolutely cannot let the enemy pass us._

"Sergeant Miles, have anyone who can fight garisson the buildings the 6th entered, then evacuate the wounded. AT gun team, set up at the borders of the intersection and fire at any enemy vehicles you see! We must not let them pass us or they might target the triage station!"

 _"This is AT team, setting up at the borders of the intersection, near its left side. We'll prioritize the closest vehicle on us."_

 _"Acknowledged, sending any soldier that can fight at the buildings the 3rd has garrisoned!"_

 _Clang_

An APDS round ricochets at the turret's left side, violently shaking the tank, which leads to the body that was pinning down the hull machine-gun falling off and freeing it.

 _Crunch!_

One of the autocannon rounds that have been hitting the tank for some time now manages to hit a part of the front plate where the NERA blocks have been gouged out completely, and while it doesn't have enough energy to pass through the armor, it does penetrate up to a certain point, leading to spalling inside and Saori getting showered by shrapnel.

"Aaaaaahhh!" she screams in pain as bits of metal cut through her clothes and flesh, giving her a multitude of cuts and light gashes on her arms, thighs, torso, and face.

"Saori!" everyone shouts the moment they hear her and Miho instinctively leans down to take a look at her, just as an M60 near them fires an APDS shell at them.

 _Crunch!_

Thanks to both tanks being on the move, the shell strikes the Panzer IV's cupola and passes cleanly through it, though it produces a small amount of shrapnel that rain down on Miho. While most of them miss her or lose enough energy by bouncing around the turret walls so they aren't lethal, a few hit her directly and dig through her vest and clothes, cutting her back like a hot knife passing through butter.

"Gah!" she shouts painfully, feeling a burning sensation on her back, as well something warm and wet flowing down her waist.

"Miho!?" Hana says in distress as Yukari barely manages to lift her hands that hold an AP shell and stop Miho from falling on her.

"I-I'm fine, I'm fine! Yukari, check how Saori is!" she mutters through gritted teeth, Hana grabbing her and gently pushing her back to her seat.

"Miho, your back, there is blood running from it," Hana says as she spots a few lines of red liquid running from the vest's edges down on her seat.

"The shrapnel must have cut in my back," she cringes, taking a few deep breaths in an attempt to combat the pain she is feeling. Dragging herself up and looking through her destroyed cupola, she tells Mako to stop the tank, the Panzer IV skidding to a stop in the middle of the intersection.

"How's Saori?" she asks, slumping down on her seat with a painful expression.

"She's full of cuts and light gashes, and is losing blood," Yukari says as she looks at Saori's injuries from behind her.

"It hurts so much..." Saori moans, tears running through her clenched eyelids, keeping her body as still as possible in order to minimize the pain she is feeling.

 _Vzzzt_

 _Clang_

The tank shakes violently as something hits it at the side, making Saori scream in pain from her aggravated wounds, while Mako just looks at her in terror, not knowing what to do.

"What now?" Miho asks herself as she drags her body up to look through the hole her cupola has, spotting an M1A2 Abrams in the distance with a smoking barrel aimed towards them. "Oh no..."

 _There is no way we can deal with an MBT, especially from the front. And even if we had a way to deal with it, the enemy will just overwhelm us at some point... Oh dear gods, please help us in our times of need,_ Miho prays in her mind, hoping for a miracle that will save them.

 _"To all units, this is Command. Air support will be arriving any moment now, hold positions till the airstrikes are over."_

And indeed as if the gods heard her prayers, Command's transmission bleeds through her headset and the sounds of jets fill the evening sky, moments before great fireballs consume the avenue in front of them, explosions that devastate anything that stands on the four-lane road.

"We are saved," Miho sighs blissfully, sinking on her seat with an expression of relief.

Another set of explosions cover the avenue, just to make sure any enemy forces that survived the first airstrike get destroyed.

 _"To all units, the airstrikes have been completed. Enemy units are retreating back to the city hall for a last stand. Pursue them at all costs and don't let them get organized and dig in!"_ comes the transmission from Command, but before she complies with the orders, she turns to Yukari.

"Yukari, come with me and help me get Saori out of the tank. Mako, keep the engine running, we need to go after any surviving enemies," Miho orders and lifts herself out of the tank, albeit with difficulty, while Yukari exits from her hatch. Making their way to the front, Miho opens Saori's hatch and kneels next to it. "Grab her right arm, I'll grab her left."

But as they do so, they unintentionally press some of her wounds, causing Saori to squirm in pain.

"We pull her up on three, okay?" Miho says and Yukari nods. "One, two, three!"

As they pull Saori out of the tank as fast as they can, the redhead does her best to bear with the pain, only a grunt escaping her gritted teeth.

"Hey, you need any help?" a soldier that passes next to the tank asks the girls, seeing Saori's bloodied and full of wounds body.

"She is heavily wounded and has lost a lot of blood! Can you please take her to the triage station?" Miho asks the man and without a single word, the soldier slings his weapon and outstretches his arms towards the girls. Slowly lowering her on his arms, the man immediately turns around and quickly takes Saori to the triage station. Looking at Saori for a few moments, Miho taps Yukari on her shoulder and nods towards the tank's turret. "Come on, the sooner we are done with the mission, the sooner we can come back for Saori."

"What about your back, Miss Nishizumi?" Yukari asks in concern as she reaches her hatch, and Miho smiles at her.

"You don't need to worry. The bleeding has stopped and the pain has subsided, so I'll have it treated when we come back here."

Entering through the cupola, Miho turns to Mako.

"Mako move forward at a moderate speed, I'll guide you around the wreckages."

And thus ,the girls moved on the avenue once more, though now it was fully devasted, full of burned bodies, shallow craters and burning wrecks of vehicles. But despite all of this destruction, none of them said a single word, remaining silent with worry over their friend. After finally reaching the edge of the city hall's plaza along with the 6th infantry platoon, since the 3rd remained back to safeguard the triage station, everyone expected the surviving enemy forces to put up stiff resistance, make a last stand. Yet, it seems the enemy had other plans.

"Mako, stop the tank."

Lifting herself from her seat and halfway through her cupola, Miho looks all around the plaza, seeing WCC forces everywhere aiming their weapons in the few surviving enemy units that are in and around the city hall. But instead of aiming their weapons at them and firing, the enemy units have laid their them down on the ground and have raised their hands in the air, while a white flag waves gently from the last floor of the damaged building.

"Haaah... So the enemy decided to surrender. At least there'll be no more bloodshed," Miho sighs tiredly, leaning at the side of the cupola and using it to support her body. _I feel exhausted. Even the day-long missions back in Blackout weren't this intense... I just want to go to sleep._

 _"To all units, this is Command. The enemy forces within the city have surrendered and the ones outside of it are withdrawing as we speak. With this, the battle for the city of Whitehead has come to an end, with us being the victors."_

Despite Command's good news, though, no one is celebrating or cheering, instead a hardened gaze being present on every soldier's face.

 _"But the enemy cannot go unpunished for what they have done. Therefore, you are all ordered to eliminate all enemy forces within the city-"_

Without even waiting for Command to finish, Miho instinctively presses a button on her headset and starts talking.

"Even if their actions deserve punishment, executing unarmed people that have surrendered and are clearly stating they wish to fight no more is wrong and unethical!" Miho shouts on her microphone, her own ideals preventing her from letting what equals to a war crime just happen in front of her.

Miho just couldn't believe what she had heard. Shooting people who have surrendered? Was this how much the factions hated each other?

"These are fellow Americans, your fellow countrymen! Hasn't been enough bloodshed between you yet? Is there any reason to spill even more blood for a fight that has clearly been won?" Because her radio is still tuned in the emergency channel, everyone in the city can hear her clearly, and it is evident by the conflicting emotions that are surfacing on each soldier's face. But despite this, the men still raise their weapons and aim them at the surrendered people, who start pleading for their lives in an attempt to save them.

 _"An example must be made, Commander. Whether it is sacrificing yourself, going by the book, or doing horrible things, war is war. Everything is allowed. Now, we may have ignored you disobeying your orders to hold your ground and even assuming field command on your own because it benefited us in the end, but if you do not follow your orders this time, you'll be court-martialled in the grounds of treason and collaborating with the enemy, since you are under our jurisdiction for the duration of your contract, which means you'll be sentenced for life in jail or be given the death penalty. So I suggest you start acting like the simple mercenary you are and nothing more."_

Miho is just at a loss of words. Not only because she has been cornered out of nowhere, she and her friends being threatened with court martial and the death penalty of all things, but also because the people around her seem to be doing nothing to at least express their discontent about the atrocity they are about to commit. Slumping on her seat inside the tank, she keeps staring down on her legs, an expression full of dread plastered on her face. The girls too look at her in great concern, having heard everything.

"Miho... What should we do?" Hana asks quietly as the first sounds of gunfire resound in the air, the pleads and cries of help from the enemy getting drowned by the reports of tank cannons.

Miho doesn't want to give the order, doesn't want to force the girls to do something so horrible, but she has to. Or else everyone will suffer a lot more. Maybe if she was alone, she'd have considered it. She was a person who upheld her ideals, even if it meant it could hurt her in the future. Yet with the rest of the girls around, she couldn't possibly make such a selfish decision; she treasured her friends a lot more than her own beliefs.

Looking at her opened hands with a disappointed expression and clenching them as much as she can, Miho takes a deep breath and utters a single word.

"...Fire."

And thus, the girls witnessed their first war crime, one of the many they'd find themselves in the presence of throughout this campaign of death and blood they walked on.

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry for this massive delay, there were a couple of reasons I was so late with this chapter. First is that I started another GuP story called Exodus: Fire and Iron. Second, my university exams start this week, so I had to study if I don't want to fail any subject. Third, bought Ace Combat 7 and God of War for my console, so my available time for writing was rather limited. Anyway, enough with the excuses. I hope you liked this chapter, and as always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!**


	38. Chapter X: A decision to be made

Sorry, no update even after all these months of waiting. I've been busy with work and university, so I had almost no free time to wrote the story. Anyway, I've put up a poll in my profile on whether I should completely rewrite the story or not, so I'd be thankful if you could vote on it.

Admittedly, the story is full of plot holes, things that don't make sense run rampart, and the execution of some things could have been better. While there have been good moments in the story (my favorite being chapter 9), overall, I feel like the story could have been much better if I could change a few things here and there.

Anyway, I hope you'll forgive me for this long absence, and hopefully will have a new chapter in the near future, whether it'll be a continuation of the current story, or the first chapter of the rewrite.


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